Easy questions, hard answers. This democracy stuff takes a little effort.

Question: Say I want to run a television commercial; do I have to tell the truth? Say there is this guy running for mayor, he’s popular and he has the political instincts of Bill Clinton channeling Lyndon Johnson. This guy knows how to read an audience. What can I say about him to knock him off his game?

Answer: Anything you want.

Question: Really, come on, I can’t lie, can I?

Answer: "Candidates have a legal right to lie to voters just about as much as they want," is what the Annenberg Public Policy Center said, to summarize the position of both the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission in regulating TV ads and the U.S. Supreme Court in upholding the First Amendment.

Question: Let’s say I want to say this candidate took "illegal campaign contributions." The contributions were illegal because the people who gave them violated the campaign spending laws, the guy who got them didn’t do anything wrong — but can I make it sound like he is a criminal?

Answer: The "say anything rule" is clear. For instance, back in 1972, the FCC made a TV station in Atlanta, Ga., run a commercial from a white racist running for the U.S. Senate. His disgusting ad said the "main reason why n- – – -rs want integration is because n- – – -rs want our white women."

The FCC said if the station takes any ads for candidates in that race, they have to take all ads; as long as it isn’t obscene, you can say it in a commercial.

Question: Listen, TV commercials are regulated. You can’t say fried chicken makes you skinny, so how can I say that this guy is a using "loopholes" to get away from disobeying the law, when that isn’t the truth? Even the former head of the Campaign Spending Commission said this guy was legal and obeying the laws. But you say I can still say he is "politically bankrupt."

Answer: Fire away. If you are advertising a business you have to watch out. The FTC in 2004 penalized Kentucky Fried Chicken when it tried to claim that fried chicken could be part of an effective diet program. It said pull the TV ads and made it submit all advertising for FTC review for the next five years.

But political ads are wrapped in free speech.

The Supreme Court takes this seriously. Here is what it said in a 1971 libel case: "It can hardly be doubted that the constitutional guarantee (of free speech) has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office."

Question: Wow, so if I can lie in my ads, will it do any good?

Answer: Dishonest political spots work all the time. TV viewers just think that all ads are the same and if you put it on TV, someone is checking to make sure it is true.

"You hear people say, ‘The ads must have some truth to them, or they wouldn’t let them on television,’" said Brooks Jackson with the Annenberg Center, in a Time magazine interview.

"Truth in advertising lulls us into a false sense of security."

Question: So if I have to twist and distort someone’s record to win, how will I be able to look at myself in the mirror when it is over?

Answer: You have to answer that question yourself.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.