While you have one of the most beautiful flags in the world, the 3/4 meter does that song (or any interpretation of it) no favors. IMmostHO, no national insult intended. It's a pompous piece (whereas you as a nation are not), not really dramatic either, and has nothing of the forward-charging enthusiasm that makes your country great.
This song encompasses American spirit for me, whenever I hear it, I smile into myself and think warmly about everything that is good about the US of A:
I also like the French
and the old Soviet anthem (admittedly, both are melodramatic).
The German one is somewhere in the middle for me, it has won since it is - post-Nazi - played at a slower pace with less percussion, more strings and overall more somber. The one of former Communist East Germany was nicer though, very somber (but then suitably "working class enthusiastic" as it progresses, around 0:40) and poignant (it was of course written and texted post-WW II) with its lyical intro "risen from the ruins and facing now the future".
