Outside America, I don't think people get an accurate picture of what America is really like. Look at any news media and you'll see that it's nearly all negative stuff. In New Zealand, we get two different sides of America:

1 - Negative news about how Bush has screwed up or how the political/judicial system, has failed again,
2 - Hip hop and r'n'b music with song titles like "Let me buy you a drank" and lyrics like "This is why I'm hot, you ain't 'cause you not". Nice work there Captain Circular-Argument, I'm convinced.

Neither of them really lend themselves to the promotion of a smart America.