At this point in a presidential campaign, establishing momentum becomes important—having the look of a winner. As I’ve often said, the swing voters who’ll decide the election don’t have strong political allegiances; these are people who view politics, as Wisconsin Democratic chairman Ben Wikler recently said, the way we political-junkie types view Olympic sports—we know they exist, and we pay attention for a brief period every four years, and that’s it. We choose to root for non-American Olympic athletes based on a bunch of emotional and nonrational factors—whether we have warm or cool feelings toward their country, whether we like the way they carry themselves, the way they smile—and maybe most of all, whether they have a shot at winning. In the 100-meter dash, we’re more likely to cheer for the Jamaican who has a real chance of medaling than the guy from Norway or whatever; nothing against Norway.

So campaigns need to do things in the closing weeks to communicate momentum and exude winner-ness. Having an unexpected rally at an unexpected and famous place qualifies. It shakes things up a little. It dominates, or at least figures prominently into, the cable news menu for probably four days—two before, the day of, and one day after. And if Trump can actually fill the place, or come close, that too communicates energy.

Harris came out of the blocks with a massive burst of energy, which has certainly stalled to some extent. Heading into these final three weeks, she needs to create some new buzz. Simply doing more events will help. She just hasn’t been on the trail enough. She needs to show that she can still draw the thousands she was drawing in August. A new proposal or two will help. It’s hard to say how much policy matters at this point, especially against an opponent who has contempt for policy, but it can’t hurt. Her proposal on long-term home care this week was actually pretty important—it’s a huge hole in Medicare and would make a difference in millions of people’s lives. Surely that got through to some voters.