 McKinley created the impression that he was , in the fashion of pre @-@ Civil War candidates , waiting casually at home for the people to elect him . Yet , McKinley during the summer of 1896 initiated a vigorous , carefully crafted campaign that employed all of the resources available to him to reach and persuade the national voting public ... There was something folksy about campaigning so casually from a modest , middle @-@ class home . When the throngs of voters stepped off the train in Canton , they discovered that McKinley was to all appearances one of them . It was in large part this quality , the ability to project warm personality through these groups to the press , that led to the success of the Front Porch campaign . 
