Mitt: 'Banks are people'. 'They feel the same things you do'.

In center of nation’s mortgage meltdown, Romney defends banks while talking about housing

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney came to ground zero of the housing crisis Tuesday to assail rival Newt Gingrich over his ties to the government-backed mortgage companies that helped make it worse, a message Romney has been pushing since he landed in the state. But that meant he also had to talk about banks — and he continued what’s become a habit of comparing companies to people.

Romney was standing outside a Fannie Mae-foreclosed home in a struggling neighborhood telling a small crowd why they’re having so much trouble. “In this case, it’s because of the banks,” he explained. “Well, the banks aren’t bad people. They’re just overwhelmed right now ...

“The banks are scared to death, of course,” he said. “They’re feeling the same thing that you’re feeling. And so they just want to pretend that all this is just going to get paid some day.”

Both comments echoed the now-famous line Romney delivered from a hay bale at the Iowa state fair: “Corporations are people, my friend!”