Tonight’s the night. The last time President Bush and Sen. John Kerry will debate face-to-face before voters go to the polls on Nov. 2.

The event, which will be broadcast from Arizona at 9 p.m. Eastern time, will focus on domestic policy. Viewers of Friday night’s town-hall-style forum got a preview of what to expect from both men.

The president will have an opportunity to defend his domestic policies over the last three and half years. If he is able to find the middle ground between his passive performance in the first debate and his aggressive style in the second, he can make a case for the expansion he has overseen in education spending and his tax cut philosophy. From his perspective, all major successes.

Kerry will likely counter with figures that show a net loss of jobs during the president’s term, growing dissatisfaction with the No Child Left Behind law and steps backward on environmental protections, stem cell research and the deficit.

Health care will likely play a major part in Kerry’s presentation, and we should all expect tough questions about abortion and the death penalty.

If the trend continues from the first two encounters, neither man will hesitate to attack the other’s position, and charges and countercharges will be surrounded by exaggerations, distortions and a lack of context.

On this the two candidates are not equal. The president has resorted to misrepresenting Kerry’s health care plan and his position on national security, among others. He’s repeated claims that Kerry is the most liberal person in the Senate, a charge that has been debunked, and he has distorted Kerry’s voting record on taxes.

Kerry uses job numbers that exaggerate the losses. Kerry often says that 1.6 million private sector jobs have been lost. That’s true, but growth in the public sector has made up for some of those. Nonetheless, Bush will likely finish his term with about 585,000 fewer jobs than when he started.

In this final debate, both men should be held accountable for the claims they make.

If this clash in Tempe, Ariz., matches the efforts from the two previous presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, voters will be well-served. Sharp differences between the two on their records and their vision for the future have emerged. It’s worthwhile to watch and judge for yourself what happens.