Even as a fairly liberal, worldly guy who's lived in Europe, I have to say this idea is way overblown.
To say nothing of the fact that U.S. politics are more important to the rest of the world than any other individual country, Europeans know a lot about other countries because they live right fucking next to a lot of other countries.
Show me a German who knows who the governors of various U.S. states are, and I'll be impressed, because that's about the equivalent.