Does Josh Mandel support the auto rescue? He’ll get back to you on that.

Out of any of the federal interventions into the economy over the past four years, one of the most successful was the auto rescue, which is so popular that a RomneyAi??adviserAi??even ludicrously tried to claim that it was Mitt Romney’s idea (remember that the candidate wrote an op-ed titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt“).

It’s notable that Ohio Republican Josh Mandel — who is trying to defeat bold progressive incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown (D) — can’t even take a position on it.

The Vindicator newspaper (Youngstown, Ohio) asked Mandel six times whether he would’ve supported the auto rescue, and each time he dodged the question:

Asked a half dozen times using different scenarios, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, wouldnai??i??t give a yes-or-no answer as to whether he supports the $82 billion federal government bailout of the American auto industry.

During a Wednesday editorial board meeting with The Vindicator, Mandel was repeatedly asked the question.

Each time, Mandel either said it was wrong for the bailout to not help Delphi salaried retirees ai??i?? who lost their health and life insurance and had their pensions cut by 30 percent to 70 percent ai??i?? or dismissed various scenarios offered by the editorial boardai??i??s members as not being legitimate questions.

It’s kind of a given that a U.S. Senator should be able to tell you whether or not they would’ve supported a major policy like the auto rescue.
UPDATE: Here’s the video of Mandel dodging the question for five minutes:

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