Does the United States, the real country, exist in the French mind, or has America become a kind of Gallic fantasy, a dark specter to be deployed for political ends, a sort of ultimate negative against which the qualities of France shine?

and Americans use France too often as a bête noir
of course their are silly fantasies about America
but this is the silliness that is all too often found on the British, American, French, Venezuelan etc Left
and it isn't always silly
I particularly admire the way the writer juxtaposes two sentences

The real U.S. unemployment rate, it is preposterously suggested, is not 5.1 percent, but 9 percent. America under Bush has no interest in international law because its sole international aim is "the promotion of the American empire."

the implication of this dovetailing is that because proposition 1 is deeply flawed then proposition 2 is thus equally ridiculous
I would argue that there is a political element in America that is part of a tradition which endorsed "manifest destiny" and that implicitly or explicitly the idea of an "American Empire" is a thread within American political discourse. The idea of the "American Empire" is not seen as quite so risible in many other parts of the world. There is a thrust towards a uni-polar world and restistance towards a multilateral approach. Sometimes others reflect back at you a slightly distorted picture of who you are or how you see yourself but that does not mean that distorted though it may be the image is completely fanciful.
There is an ongoing battle for global hegemony. The West has been winning that struggle since the great age of discovery and Magellan. Europe dominated the world generally through colonialism and the British Empire specifically. The Western ideas of democracy, communism and fascism dominated the planet in the 20th century. Currently the West is at war with the totalitarian model of Islam. This is a struggle it will win. But what sort of West and world will emerge. Will the Western hegemony mean America?
Does it automatically mean empire? No. Could it mean empire? Yes.
In many respects I want and believe in American hegemony. But will the real America please stand up. There are many visions of what America is! Was! Or what it could be!
Does American hegemony mean the rule of law, democracy, free speech, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Berkley, Minnesota, Texas, a Wall-Mart in every town on the planet, napalm, Bush's blindness, the men of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Bastogne? What does it mean? All of those? Only the nice bits and not the KKK redoubts in Montana?