Senator McCain is also someone who understands that good government is limited government, and seeks to shorten the reach of Washington's bureaucracy - not lengthen it - which is important for those of us living outside the US. He is also very open to free trade with China, whereas Senator Obama is a protectionist and wants to keep jobs in America. Senator Obama has looked at the failures of the George W. Bush administration and decided we need more government. He thinks we need more than 14.6 million people working for it to avoid a repeat.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, understands a ballooning government has been part of the problem, and wants to cut the burden of higher taxes and unnecessary government intervention in the lives of US citizens.

Meanwhile, Senator Obama seems to have very little respect for the supreme law of the United States. His short three years in the Senate were spent eroding our civil liberties, and his revisionist view of the Second Amendment effectively shreds the very premise of the right to bear arms.

Nicholas Gordan, 17, South Island School (Democrat) :

Quite simply, the strongest reason to vote for Senator Obama is that he has substance. He has proven himself over the course of a gruelling two-year campaign, showing his intelligence, organisational skills and ability to handle the presidency. He has surrounded himself with smart advisers, allowing him to make reasonable, intelligent policies on the economy, the environment and on foreign policy. To paraphrase Colin Powell, the Republican and former general who endorsed Senator Obama a few weeks ago, experience matters, but judgment matters more. Senator Obama has judgment, and has made the right decisions.

If you are wondering how it would affect us here in Hong Kong, the honest answer is a Barrack Obama presidency probably would not change our lives. But his election would be the best result for the rest of the world. Senator Obama is the right man for the job. He will work with countries like China. He will provide a new image for a country that badly needs reinvention.

Be bold and imagine a United States with an African-American president.

Alan Monticello, 17, Hong Kong International School (Libertarian):

Both senators McCain and Obama have spent this election claiming they were the men to effect 'real change'. But their policies aren't very different. Senators Obama and McCain both voted for the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the US$700 billion bailout. Both claim to advocate fiscal responsibility, yet senators Obama and McCain's fiscal policies would add US$3.3 and US$4.5 trillion respectively to the national debt. That's not change but more of the same.

Libertarianism is grounded in the principles on which the United States was founded: minimal taxation, economic deregulation, small government and a responsible foreign policy.

Both candidates would have us believe that the current financial crisis was caused by a lack of regulation. But the financial crisis was not caused by the 'failures' of free-market capitalism, but by corporatism and an alliance between the economy and politics. Don't blame freedom: freedom works.