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Nearly 100 students attended the hour-long discussion, which highlighted several key issues influencing the November election. Slate magazine is an online publication that covers political and cultural issues.
The event was broadcast on C-SPAN television and Washington Post Radio.
Panelists included Bruce Reed, the president of the Democratic Leadership Council, Karen Tumulty, the national political correspondent for Time magazine, and Mickey Kaus, a writer for Slate magazine.
The discussion was moderated by John Dickerson, the chief political correspondent for Slate, who began by asking panelists what issues they felt were important in the upcoming election.
"I think that at this point, barring some cataclysmic event ... the Senate is the big question," said Tumulty, who added that a Democratic majority is likely to form in one of the houses of Congress this fall. "Whether it is one or two really tells us a lot about where this president goes, what he has left to do and ultimately what his mark on history will be."
Kaus, author of the KausFiles blog, said that sudden national news stories breaking soon before the election can prove to be very significant.
"I would look for the events that might turn it around," Kaus said. "And it wouldn't be a cataclysmic event, but it would be the little Foley ... events that would allow Rove to mobilize his base."
When asked about specific Senate races, panelists said the most noteworthy elections are taking place in Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee.
"One of the phenomena this year is that the red state, blue state dichotomy that we've lived with for years is sort of breaking down," said Kaus, referring to the Tennessee election between Bob Corker and the Democratic incumbent Harold Ford Jr. "If you live in a very conservative rural community, you're reluctant to say 'I'm going to vote for the black Democrat.' But you might."
