Evidently, the Biden v. Trump debate we thought we’d never see is actually going to take place this Thursday night. That’s great news, perhaps our one and only chance to witness a face-to-face confrontation between the present and former president.

As the principals do their own last-minute debate prep, now is a good time for the voters to think seriously about what we want/need to see. Both candidates keep telling us that this will be the most important election in our lifetimes, and they may be right. I’d argue that instead of wasting the evening on a smorgasbord of finger-pointing and vague political talking points, we’d be better served with an in-depth exchange on the most pressing challenges facing our nation.

Here’s my list of what’s important for us to hear — and what’s not.

First, a few notes:

• I, for one, don’t want to hear the words “convicted felon” from Joe Biden. That smear was bought and paid for by the Democrats — a contrived trial over a seven-year-old petty misdemeanor allegation morphed into 34 felony counts, tried by a conflicted judge and a Manhattan jury, and now the Democrats’ punchline in a reportedly $50 million TV advert. My advice to the president: Don’t mention it on Thursday night. For every gloating Democrat, you will remind a dozen angry Republicans and independents that your crowd — the ones who decry Trump’s supposed “Big Lie” about the last election — has irreparably tarnished this election and perhaps future ones.

• Claims about sinister GOP plans to prohibit abortion have been a proven winner for Democrats in the past few years, but let’s face it — that train has left the station. For the record, the Supreme Court did not take a constitutional right from anyone — it simply confirmed what we already knew, which is that abortion is not mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution and that the Framers never gave it a thought. And all who are concerned about the decline of democracy should be happy that the matter is now exactly where it belongs — in the hands of all Americans via their elected state legislatures.

• And let’s not waste time talking about the existential threat of climate change. Yes, the climate is changing, just as it has been throughout the earth’s existence. But we can’t buy our way out of it or make even a serious dent in the problem with EV mandates and vast wind and solar farms. The earth’s flora and fauna, human beings included, will deal with climate change as we always have — by adapting to our changing environment. Some Democrat political strategists are reportedly advising Biden to ensure that voters — particularly the young ones — know about his administration’s crusade to save the environment. I disagree. For many, that’s just another reminder of fortunes spent on a futile mission to tame Mother Nature.

Instead, let’s hear your plans on these three:

1.) Nuclear weapons in the hands of people reckless enough to actually use them.

The truly existential threat facing our planet is the mere existence of arsenals capable of destroying it. In the next few years, Iran will likely join the nuclear club. As scary as are nuclear-armed Russia, China, and North Korea, they recognize the concept of mutually assured destruction, which gives us some confidence that they will think long and hard before unleashing their nuclear demons. Not so with Iran. Somehow, it is much easier to imagine those religious zealots taking us all down in a glorious mushroom-shaped cloud. How do we neutralize that one?

2.) The U.S. economy, and particularly the catastrophic debt bomb that has grown under both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Not that long ago, the idea of a trillion-dollar deficit was unthinkable (the word “trillion” is mathematical shorthand for an incomprehensibly large amount of money). Since then, we began to add a trillion in debt every couple of years, and now it’s yearly — and far exceeding our GDP. That’s an unsustainable burden that, at some point (quite possibly soon), will blow up the entire U.S. economy.

Tell us, Messrs. Biden and Trump, how you plan to turn that ship around, and how you can do so while still building up our national defense (or maybe you don’t think that’s necessary?) and without touching entitlements.

And what are your specific plans for undoing (or not) the Trump tax cuts, hated by Democrats and loved by Republicans?

3.) Perhaps most importantly, let’s hear some serious debate about each candidate’s very different ideas for dealing with the illegal immigration crisis.

Note that this one is a very real crisis and has now taken on an entirely new dimension.

Yes, both candidates must explain how they intend to seal our southern border, combat the Mexican cartels’ human trafficking and influx of drugs, and handle millions of asylum requests. But the more pressing piece is how to deal with the 10-plus (some guess 20) million unvetted, anonymous new residents. Despite the likely good intentions of most migrants, some of them are dangerous criminals (we already see that playing out horribly), and others are surely terrorists in our midst.

Trump glibly promises to implement the “largest deportation in our nation’s history,” commencing on his first day in office, but I fear that will prove to be a nightmarishly difficult, controversial, and ultimately unpopular exercise — an albatross that will far outlive the public’s memory of who invited these folks into our country in the first place. And how does each candidate plan to find out who’s here, who poses an unacceptable danger, and take action to prevent another 9/11? That topic alone deserves the lion’s share of Thursday’s 90-minute debate.

If we can even scratch the surface on those three, Thursday’s debate will be very telling indeed.