[Gráinne]

It wasn't women, Latinos, blacks or even the retiring baby boomers who decided this election. To some extent, it was all of them. And it was a girl named Sandy in a stage production directed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), with an assist from New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I) that helped reelect President Barack Obama.

After months of finger-pointing, fact-checking and debates, it took floodwaters and raging winds, killing at least 111 people and knocking out power to millions, to set the election's final course.

The storm united a country that stepped up to aid its citizens. It was on the storm's center stage that the nation finally saw evidence of consensus and bipartisanship that Obama has been working so futilely for four years to achieve. And much to the nation's surprise, the prized reach-across-the-aisle moment featured the most ferocious Republican lion of them all, Chris Christie.

Call Christie what you will, question his own ambitious motives, tell him he needs to go on a diet. Whatever. He became Tony Soprano on a good day -- a tough-talking teddy bear of a guy who gave comfort to those in need and wouldn't take no for an answer. He let the world know how Obama gave him his direct phone number and told him to use it anytime. He stood up to GOP party puppeteers and wouldn't give Mitt Romney a chance for a photo op -- Christie was no longer interested in playing presidential politics when the lives of the people of his state were turned so upside-down, he said. And when he publicly praised Obama for his response to the storm's victims, it was a pin stuck in a Romney voodoo doll for all the nation to see.

-- Ann Brenoff