Plus: Kamala Harris’s priorities. Tim Walz the gamer. This generation’s new jobs.

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In today’s edition:

• Chicago rocks. Here’s what Kamala Harris must do to rock, too.
• Sign up for a new newsletter on the future of work
• Washington state’s jungle primary is a crystal ball
• Tim Walz is a gamer. Gwen Walz is an icon.

First priorities in the Second City

The vice president might think she’s going to be the star of this week’s Democratic National Convention. Plot twist: The star is Chicago.

To set the scene for the Dems’ big gathering, Post Opinions enlisted three residents to reflect on the city hosting it. As novelist Rebecca Makkai writes, Chicago’s star power comes in part from its ability to surprise. “What you’ll find instead of the nonstop hellscape that NBC and the GOP want you to picture,” she says, are “shoreline, skyline, vibrantly distinct neighborhoods and … the arts.”

There is crime and violence, author Ben Austen writes, but also endless, diverse beauty, too; just watch the people who pass through one of the city’s many parks. And comedian Bill Letz trumpets the city’s bellies, which can properly grow only on people who love food and hate artifice.

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Harris might not have time to ingest the 1,000 Pizza Puffs required to round out, but hopefully she can sneak a taste amid all her convention week to-do’s — which Jen Rubin lays out for her. No. 1, of course, is to once and for all take the baton from President Joe Biden. Interesting is Jen’s recommendation to temper Democratic “joy” a bit: A party floating on optimism can’t forget to attack, too.

Perry Bacon hopes the presumptive nominee will take a little time this week to talk to journalists, particularly the policy wonks. Not doing so, he says, risks turning the “conversation” of her candidacy into a “monologue.”

More than anything, E.J. Dionne writes, Harris must find the balance between being “new and improved” and remaining loyal to Biden and his legacy. “Getting it right will make her president,” he says.

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Luckily, there’s a very successful model in history: Harris, meet George H.W. Bush.

Chaser: Karen........

© Washington Post