What does too much Oxygen do?

My last brew I racked to a secondary, but it was just another bucket. I don't have a carboy... yet.
I have had a brew in the primary for 10 days now and was going to do the secondary again, however reading Palmers book he say it will have too much head space and the oxygen will be bad for it.
What do you guys think? What does the oxygen do to my good stuff?

Mike's Brew and Brat said:

What do you guys think? What does the oxygen do to my good stuff?

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it will make it get stale faster, and it will eventually cause it to taste like cardboard.

However, it's not really the amount of airspace that is the concern... SURFACE AREA is more important (how much of your beer is touching the air.)

Either way, I wouldn't worry about it. When you rack the beer, you are going to knock loose some CO2 that is dissolved in the beer. This CO2 will create a blanket of protection on top of the beverage, insulating it from the air above.

Just don't shake it up too much when you rack or after you rack, and it should be fine.

-walker