Of course the issues were different. The country was different, its role in the world was different. The means of communication were different, the methods of transportation were different. The roles of the sexes were different, racial attitudes were different. Even the diversions were different; there were dance halls and vaudeville and a World Series where the Cleveland Indians prevailed over the Brooklyn Robins. The candlestick phones that were popular did not have camera features.

But there was this: In 1920, the leading presidential candidate did not campaign among crowds at all.

A century ago -- when the post-World War I flu pandemic clearly had passed its peak danger and wasn't much of a campaign issue at all -- Warren G. Harding didn't venture into packed hotel ballrooms, held no rallies, appeared at no rope lines. He didn't venture into the country to seek votes. He stayed at home and bid the voters to visit him in Marion, Ohio. It was the last of the four front-porch campaigns, and the way he ran against Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio may be the precursor of the way former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is forced to run against President Donald J. Trump this fall.

...

"It could work," said Jeffrey Bourdon, a University of Southern Mississippi historian who wrote a book on front-porch campaigns. "You can produce optics for television, Twitter and Instagram. It is a technique tried only four times, but there never has been a candidate who tried it who lost."

https://dailyjournalonline.com/opinion/columnists/biden-needs-to-invite-the-nation-to-his-virtual-front-porch/article_8d4da8ce-c3f5-5dc6-8ccb-36c4c3c83190.html