As presidential candidates hem and haw about one thing and another, the American public wants some definitive answers. At least I do. I tire of hearing something on day one with the next few days of comments from surrogates as they attempt to explain away, walk back, what was said on that first day. And I’ve never heard so many synonyms for the word “lie”: misstatement, inaccuracy, evasion.

I’ve voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates for president, and I’m in the mood for candor, frankness, honesty, truth. The time for equivocation is long past.

The next debate will be on Oct. 9 and will be in a town meeting format. Ostensibly, those selected by the Gallup Organization to pose questions will be a group of uncommitted voters. After all the brouhaha for months now, I doubt that any person is truly uncommitted.

With this debate, however, the public has an opportunity to submit questions at PresidentialOpenQuestion.com, and the 30 most frequently-posed questions will be considered.

I don’t expect to agree with either candidate on all the issues of concern to me, but I believe as a voter, I should be able to assign weight to what is important to me so that I can make an informed decision.

Each of us has a list- and our lists can well be different- but here is mine in no priority order:

• The candidates’ sense of the relationship among the three branches of government, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial, and knowledge of same;

• Minimum wage, unions, assistance to areas decimated by outsourcing and environmental regulation with mass unemployment and underemployment;

• College tuition, student loans, charter schools, and workforce training;

• Military spending, ISIS, home-grown terrorists and terrorism, military intervention abroad, law enforcement training, veterans;

• Racism, poverty, heath care, child welfare, environmental issues, abortion, capital punishment, immigration, church-state relations, equal opportunity, same-sex unions, women, minorities.

A big part of me just wants the circus to be over. The entertainment to which the world has been exposed embarrasses me even though I realize that other countries have their ludicrousness as well. I have always viewed our country, in spite of our many flaws, as a country that attempts to set the standards for logic, civility, and morality.