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CHICAGO -- The poet Carl Sandburg's "City of the Broad Shoulders" lifted Kamala Harris up, making the vice president the frontrunner in the race for president.

Harris hit all her notes, personal and political, in a near-perfect speech to introduce herself to the American public. She met the moment at the Democratic convention.

Who says joy isn't a political strategy? To pundits and skeptics: bah humbug.

The palpable pursuit of happiness filling the "United" Center suggests Harris may ride that wave all the way to shore. We the people have suffered so much, let's not count the ways.

Beyond that momentum, something seismic in history happened in Chicago -- without a word of comment.

In 2024, for the first time ever, women played the starring roles on the stage of American politics.

Harris was blessed by a graceful and generous speech delivered by Hillary Clinton, who almost made it to the Oval in 2016. There were bittersweet tears and a lot of love for her in the house.

Running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz played a super second fiddle. (Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, not so much.)

Michelle Obama gave a brilliant diatribe against former President Donald Trump. No more "when they go low, we go high."

If you recall her glower at Trump's inaugural, this landed as a golden chance to tell the world what she really thinks. Speaking of the presidency as a "Black job" brought down the house. She did better than the other Obama.

Like Harris, Obama made her late mother the inspirational source in her life story. Rarely are mother-daughter bonds publicly praised.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, 53, lit up the place with her clever lobs at the "man from Mar-a-Lago" whose first word was likely "chauffeur." Harris, she stated with conviction, "gets us. She sees us."

Come to think of it, the Democratic convention opened the way for a full-frontal attack on Trump like never before.

The 2020 convention, during the pandemic, whispered. Eight years ago, the convention in Philadelphia centered on Hillary -- years before Trump became a convicted criminal on 34 counts. Everyone predicted she'd win.

That's what pollsters and pundits said.

Speaker after speaker, dagger after dagger, four straight nights, Trump laid low and bled -- or raged. Whatever; it's clear the man is aging badly and "out of his mind," to borrow Harris' phrase.

The 78-year-old felt he had the election in the bag against President Joe Biden. He's stupefied on how to prosecute a war of words against a prosecutor, a dignified woman of color who knows his type.

(So unfair.)

They say Trump supporters are getting sick of the game he can't change. His running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is just a copycat in the tired politics of insult.

Now, for the talk of the town, the grande dame who created the whole spectacle from behind the scenes. Meet Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker emerita.

Yes, she represents San Francisco, but she learned politics in Baltimore from her father, three-term mayor of the Democratic stronghold. They adore "Little Nancy" in Little Italy.

Pelosi gently but firmly pushed Biden, 81, off the cliff of running again in a masterful move for party and country.

A long dear friendship may be lost, but Pelosi, 84, believed Biden would lose against Trump, who sent an armed mob to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to overturn the election.

Political violence violates the norms of American democracy, but we're not out of the woods yet.

Not for nothing is Pelosi's book, "The Art of Power," atop the bestseller list.

Pelosi, when second in line to the presidency as speaker, opened the way forward to a younger California woman to step up to the highest ground, the mountaintop.

Pelosi's touch also showed in the scores of women wearing suffrage white, in homage to "Votes for Women" in Aug. 1920.

Chicago set the summer stage for exuberance. Everyone I met, from police to pro-Palestinian protestors, made visitors feel welcome with open arms. I lost my diary in Millennium Park, and a kind young stranger walked up the Magnificent Mile to give it to me.

Abraham Lincoln won his party nomination here in 1860.

Political winds completely changed in the Windy City, then and now.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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