In today’s Post, my thoughts on the GOP debate and the campaigns the candidates’ might have run if they had 2007 to do over again:

YESTERDAY’S Republican debate - the last one before voters go to the polls Jan. 3 for the Iowa Caucuses - resembled a train wreck on more than one occasion.The big embarrassment was ex-Ambassador Alan Keyes, who hasn’t been at any other debate - and looked at many points like he’d have to be removed from the stage by security.

Still, out of all the chaos emerged at least a few revealing things about the candidates’ strategies going forward - and the campaigns they might have run, if they had 2007 to do over.

Awards season may just be getting underway, but we already have at least one winner. The award for worst debate moderating in a presidential primary goes to: the editor of the Des Moines Register, Carolyn Washburn, for her part in yesterday’s GOP debate on Iowa Public Television.