By Samuel Rubenfeld

Though it was not televised, a panel of CNN regulars held a discussion Tuesday afternoon at the Monroe Lecture Center.

Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist, Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic strategist, and Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin all spoke about the 2008 presidential election during a 90-minute panel discussion moderated by Meena Bose, the chair of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.

The panel is often cast together on the set of CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” whose show regularly features segments on immigration from a border-security-first perspective and free trade from a protectionist perspective.

The partisans on the panel agreed on one thing: a dissatisfaction with the current president, George W. Bush.

“Even Republicans want to see the moving vans going back to Crawford, Texas, with ‘one way’ signs on them,” said Rollins, who has held senior roles in nine presidential campaigns, his most recent being Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s failed run in this cycle.

Goodwin said he was the voice of moderation on the panel, representing the press, but he acknowledged the press’ lackluster job in covering this election.

“The press took another step backwards with this campaign, and it’s unfortunate because it is now when they are most needed,” he said. Goodwin said the press should have been more skeptical instead of cynical, and said he saw “major elements of the national media” taking sides for the first time.

Zimmerman characterized the election as one “of a nation in crisis.”

The panelists agreed that the campaigns have not yet adequately responded to the turmoil in the stock markets, citing its complexity. “It’s too complicated for them, and the answers are not easy,” Rollins said.

Both partisans said they were looking at the upcoming debates as the game changer for either candidate. Rollins said McCain has to be “steady and reassuring,” while also casting Obama as a great risk because he is a relative unknown. Zimmerman said Obama must deliver on substance.

Immigration was not discussed at the panel, and free trade only came up after a graduate student asked about the “Amero,” a unit of currency proposed by some scholars as the North American counterpart to the euro, linking the U.S., Mexico and Canada, that some conspiracy theorists think will replace the U.S. dollar. The panel knew little about it, with Zimmerman requesting the questioner to “fill [him] in” on what the Amero is.

Panelists resumed their TV role off the screen and inside Monroe Lecture Center Tuesday afternoon. (Jeff Herman)