Below The Beltway

If you didn’t think that this weekend’s story was going to have legs, well, you’re just wrong:

Hillary chief strategist Geoffrey Garin dramatically raised the stakes in the battle over Barack Obama’s comments about small-town America, saying in an interview that they would be “damaging” to him in a general election, could set back the Democratic Party’s efforts to reach heartland voters, and should be something that super-delegates consider when deciding whom to support.

“These are the kinds of attitudes that have created a gulf between Democrats and lots of small-town and heartland voters that we’ve been working very, very hard to bridge,” Garin told me today in his first public comments about the flap.

“I saw Senator Obama’s comments as a step backward to building those kinds of bridges,” Garin continued, saying the following of the impact that the comments could have in a general election:

“They will be damaging. And they could be significantly so…I don’t think that the kinds of attitudes that Senator Obama expressed are consistent with Democrats doing what we need to do to win a general election.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Garin also:

* Suggested that the comments were “completely fair game” for use in an ad, and an “important topic”

* Said that he would “hope” that the Clinton campaign would point to the comments in their efforts to persuade super-delegates to back her over Obama

As I said earlier today, Obama gave his opponent an opening, and it’s an opening as wide as football field right now, and she’s rushing right through it.

Will it work ? Only time will tell, but we could be witnessing a turning point in the campaign yet again.