Tom Hanks (right) with 82nd Airborne soldier Staff Sgt. Maurice Craft in Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Physical Therapy Clinic. Photo: wiki commons.

NY Times – When presidential candidates have a message they want voters to hear far and wide, they have typically turned to that old campaign standby: the television ad.

But as President Obama and his advisers prepare to begin their general election push, they are turning first not to a 30-second commercial but a 17-minute online documentary that they hope will be shared and spread online through social networks and e-mail.

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