As entertaining as the vice-presidential debate in St Louis was, I find it hard to get too excited about it. Sarah Palin winked, Joe Biden was not patronising, neither fumbled badly. All in all a nice opening course, but it is the main two protagonists I want to hear from, specifically on one issue - the economy.

Foreign matters might have been a bigger issue as the campaign started, but there is no doubt the financial crisis has firmly become the focus of attention, and I, for one, would greatly appreciate if senators Barack Obama and John McCain could be a little more forthcoming on what sort of economic policies they plan to pursue over the next four years, should they be elected president.

I am not a US citizen and hold no vote to cast, but having done such a good job promoting globalisation and making the world a smaller place, I hope America does not take too unkindly to my interest in what it may see as domestic issues.

I must admit that despite more than a passing interest in the US elections, I am hardly following it 24/7, so I might have missed something along the way, but so far neither candidate has convinced me as the right man to have at the helm of the world's biggest economy.

For all his rhetoric about improving the economy, Obama displays a disconcerting penchant for protectionism that will not go down too well with the rest of the world; McCain thinks the economy is fundamentally sound, which it is not, but stands much stronger in favour of free trade.

Neither is great for the rest of the world, truth be told, when judging solely on their visions for the American economy. Both would do well to remember and remind their voters, more than half of whom now believe that free trade is a threat to them, that America is not the world, rather a part of it.

What is more, the US takes the fact that it has to lead as a given, even if the world is only twirling around. What it seems to have forgotten lately is that with greater power comes greater responsibility and the global economy is just an important an issue as Iraq or climate change.

And thus I await the next Obama-McCain debate on October 7, even more so the October 15 one, to hear what the two men in the running for the job of steering the globalhegemon think of America's course in these uncertain waters of global recession.

Four years ago, when George W Bush was re-elected to the White House, one website featured thousands of photographs of Americans apologising to the rest of the world for the deed. There was no small amount of commiseration at that time and hope that matters would be different come 2008. Botch it again and the world will not be as sympathetic.