The Gulf of Mexico suffered remarkably little damage. Why were
so many so willing to believe otherwise? The day after the
midterm elections in November, panelists at the University of
Maryland School of Public Policy discussed the various factors
that had contributed to the Democrats’ lossesmost surprisingly,
the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. One speaker with excellent
Democratic connections in Washington noted that top White House
staff were consumed by the spill and its political fallout for
much of the spring of 2010. As staffers now lamented privately,
this had diverted attention from other pressing issuesabove all,
the sputtering economy. The political fortunes of the Democratic
party were not the only collateral damage from the spill. Gulf
coast tourism plummeted, even in areas untouched by oil. Seafood
restaurants in New York and Chicago proudly advertised that they
did not serve Gulf fish. And many oyster beds were devastated
when they were flushed with fresh water from the Mississippi
River as a “