OH, GOODY: Byron York: Mike Huckabee gears up for 2016 run. Well, that should give worried Democrats some hope.

Mike Huckabee is leading the Republican presidential race in Iowa. And not by just a point or two: in a new CNN survey, the former Arkansas governor, winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, is at 21 percent, with his closest GOP pursuer, Rep. Paul Ryan, nine points behind. Rand Paul is 14 points back, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush 15 behind.

Few frontrunners choose not to run. And when Huckabee, not yet a candidate and officially undecided, invited a group of reporters to meet with him at a hotel outside Washington Monday, he certainly looked like a man preparing to jump into the race.

One obvious sign is that Huckabee is talking about world affairs. Back in 2007, when he first ran for the GOP nomination, he became frustrated when debates focused on the war in Iraq. “Do you realize that in four debates we never had a single question on education?” he once complained.

On Monday, though, Huckabee opened his discussion with foreign policy. He has just returned from a trip to Israel — his third this year. Huckabee, who is perhaps the walking personification of American evangelical support for Israel, says he has lost count of the times he has been there since his first visit in 1973. What he is sure of is that President Obama has taken the wrong approach to Israel’s latest conflict.

Well, that’s plucking the low-hanging fruit.