Gov. Mike Beebe made an appearance at a ceremony this afternoon, celebrating the move of KATV’s enormous video collection (over 24,000 hours of film) to the Arkansas State Library in Little Rock. The collection will be digitized and made available to the public through the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas. Afterward, Beebe answered questions from reporters, not a single one about the video library. When asked if he would, as it appears at least one Democratic candidate has decided to do, run against the Obama administration, Beebe said that if Democrats make themselves and their positions known to the people of Arkansas, they will be able to win in November.
On the jump, Beebe responds to questions raised by his opponent, Jim Keet, about his positions on the lottery and health care reform. When asked about charges that the governor was AWOL on the health care discussion, Beebe says, “I was here, AWOL’s being in Florida.”