Maybe the country, or at least Ohio, is really in the sorry state that Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee, thinks we are. Certainly someone thought that ad was a good idea — the one in which Amy Acton's biological mother (who she has not been in contact with since 1978) calls her a liar, which reminds everyone that Acton was abused as a child by that woman's husband.

Someone, somewhere, thought that would get votes for the guy who ran it?

What's shocking is not that there is someone in the bowels of the campaign who would come up with it and even do it, but that those people plainly include the candidate and the men running this country.

This started as an internet ad. When it exploded, the candidate could have run for cover and taken it off the air (letting those who wanted to see it find it). Instead, he pronounced that he was putting $4 million behind the ad.

He was joined in his embrace of the ad by the vice president, who pronounced himself disgusted by all the "whining" about the ad, and the president, who went on a tirade against all the phony Republicans denouncing the ad. Meanwhile, the Acton campaign furnished the court records documenting the abuse and the indictment and the order taking custody.

This is the fight you want to have leading up to the election? Who is Vivek trying to appeal to? Parading an Apologist for a pedophile who would prey on her own children? That's who you recruit for a digital reunion advertisement? That's who you think voters will listen to, the message you want to spread?

Given the "massive interest" in the case, local officials dug out the old records which corroborated everything in the records she had already provided: the arrest and indictment for rape of his 12-year-old stepdaughter, the multiple warrants for his arrest until his death in 2004. If he were still alive, would they use him too? Would influencers be pushing the story? To what end?

It should be noted that most establishment Republicans in Ohio distanced themselves, if not outright condemned the ad. It's a relief to find that there is still a decent center somewhere, even if it takes a crazy extreme to reveal it.

And it does not include the president, the vice president, or the MAGA army. "You got to ride with it," the president reported he told Vivek. Asked by reporters whether he had changed his mind about the ad since learning the woman's husband had raped her daughter, Trump said, "No, it's a mother speaking badly against Amy Acton ... If it were my mother speaking badly about me, you'd be making it the No. 1 story on the news." He also criticized an NBC News reporter who pressed him further about the situation, calling her "a fresh person" and "horrible little reporter." Asked about Republicans who have denounced the ad, Trump said, "They don't know the facts."

What facts?

"A mother is saying, 'Don't put my daughter there, because she's a terrible person and she's a liar.' Why shouldn't somebody use that?" he added.

There are so many reasons. Do you even have to ask?

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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