Well what Gregor said is the view of majoroty of people here in Slovenia. Although there are people here who also idolize Americans - like all the girls would be perfect beauties and all the guys would be excelent athlets...
Personally I think that about 75% of the entire population (I mean the whole world) isn't something humanity could be proud of. Most people are intelectually lazy (or even incapable of deep thought) and are only looking for a way to make their lives as pleasurable for them as possible with as little effort as possible. And this, I think, applys for all the countries all over the world.
The main problem with America's image in the world is it's publicity.
US became a promised land for poor Europeans when it got discovered. So people started thinking about it as the perfect paradise on Earth. It's not - no place can be. Then US became a super-power, so people thought of it as curropt, pompous, but at least rich. And now most people identify it with it's military being present all over the world. This makes it just one big bully.
The fact that most movies come from Hollywood doesn't help either. The movie industry was and to some point still is projecting the image of US as the land of dreams and oportuneties. It's not. It's just a land like every other. But the rest of the world usually understands that as boasting (not that they wouldn't probably do the same).
And because the US media is always out to find some oddity and stupidity (like people sealing off their houses to protect their families from a biological terrorist attack) and such news is sold to the world as well - people see more stupid americans then stupid people of other nationalities - although every nation has it's own share of stupidity (And trust me - Slovenia might be on the top of the list).
So the perception of US among the rest of the world is usually based upon images people get from media - not based on the people who actually live there.
EDIT: And as for politics... I think that's one thing we actually shouldn't talk about. I don't go around gossiping on how people should do their domestic choirs. US policy is mostly an internal thing of the US, so the only thing I can really comment on is their international involvment - it concerns me too.
Why are the US armed forces present all over the world? Are they really necessary?
Why is US so concerend with bringing democracy to people all over the world? It's liek some sort of missionary work (they are basically bullying people to copy their own regime)?
That would probably be all for now.
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