We wondered when he would hit back. He's been taking blows for a while, biding his time, waiting.

This week, Mike Beebe began to throw counterpunches.

We attended the Democratic Party's "Evening with the Senators" last night in Fort Smith. Beebe was the keynote speaker, and despite the event's title, he barely mentioned Mark Pryor and embattled Blanche Lincoln. Instead the governor delivered a fiery speech for his campaign, going after GOP opponent Jim Keet by name.

Keet has accused Beebe of pumping up a positive image of Arkansas while hiding a far different reality. Beebe retorted, "I haven't tried to hide anything." He recalled a speech he gave to the General Assembly's fiscal session in January, where he told the legislature that the state was losing tens of thousands of jobs. "Imagine where we'd be," he said, "if we hadn't created 25,000 more jobs."

Beebe said his opponent was accusing him of "misleading" Arkansans. "Why doesn't he just say I'm lying?" Beebe asked. "But I'm not going to lie to you. I would rather go home and play golf than lie to you."

He spoke about how Arkansas is only one of four states in the country to finish the fiscal year with a budget surplus. "We are now the leader," he said, "and the rest of [the states] can take notice."

Beebe said that Keet's attacks are not ultimately against him. Because his opponent is painting a bleak picture of Arkansas, he said, Keet is "trashing" the people of the state.

Beebe also took a shot at his opponent's residency for the first time. Keet had been living in Florida until late last year. "Jim Keet," Beebe said, "became a registered voter in Arkansas on January 10, 2010." He repeated it for effect.

If the speech was any indication, it looks like Beebe will run on joining himself and the state at the hip. Keet is accusing him of poor leadership, so Beebe is emphasizing the state as a leader to the rest of the country -- an indirect way of showing his own skills as a leader. Similarly, when Keet paints a gloomy picture and then points to Beebe as the cause, Beebe will say Keet is "trashing" the entire state. Also, because Keet only recently returned to Arkansas from Florida, Beebe can paint Keet as being disconnected from the state.

It's a shrewd strategy. Beebe has in recent months gone from being the prohibitive favorite to merely the heavy favorite in this race. But now that he is moving into campaign mode, we'll see whether he can stop Keet's advance.