Reply #7: It's the exact point- the administration hasn't much narrative to offer

[depakid]

It's been the proverbial "by the wind sailor"

And consequently among the casualties of the oil spill.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella">Velella, common name: By the Wind Sailor

May 11, 2010 Oil spill science: The jellyfish graveyard

...Here at MC118 we found much more of the dispersed oil and occasional clumps of thick, gooey, intact oil. Beyond that the most striking thing is the presence of countless small dead jellyfishes known as by-the-wind sailors, or Velella vellela, and known to be susceptible to oil. Normally these animals, about the size of two fingers together, are blue and float on the surface with a triangular sail rising above the water t. But those we see here are transparent and floating upside down, many stained with oil.

After finishing here late tonight, we'll move nearby to drop a device called the high-frequency acoustic recording package, or HARP, to the seafloor, about 1600metres below. There it will sit and record marine mammal sounds in the region before retrieval by other researchers a few months from now....

More: http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/05/oil_spill_science_the_jellyfis_1.html

These folks -and many more were the candidate's staunchest and most enthusiastic allies. Now of course- begrudgingly and not so much.