From the website of Hungarian State President I see that former New York State governor George Pataki yesterday was up at the presidential palace getting a medal. In announcing the award - the very spiffy-sounding Commander's Cross with the Star of the Order of Merit of Republic of Hungary (civil division) - President László Sólyom had this to say:

It is always a great pleasure for me when I meet such outstanding personalities who, having achieved recognition in other parts of the world are proud and are full of love when they mention their Hungarian ancestors. No doubt, George Pataki is such a personality, who was born as the grandson of Hungarian immigrants, and who was a well appreciated and respected Governor of one of the most important states of the United States, and as such gained recognition for Hungarians in general… Governor, with your proudly proclaimed Hungarian consciousness you contribute to the preservation of the identity of Hungarians in America.

As a former New Yorker who actually voted at least once for Pataki, I think I have the standing to weigh in on this totally insignificant but still irritating issue.

For one thing, can everyone again just try and understand that no one in America except for Hungarian-Americans will ever give a hoot - or even notice - that some supposedly accomplished or famous person can trace their roots, like Pataki, to Aranyosapáti or some other sad little Hungarian burg way back when? So no, Pataki didn't gain "recognition for Hungarians in general."

Moreover, Pataki was an absolute disaster as a governor, having done pretty much zero in his 12 years in office to fix the various ills that plague the state, including a massive and parasitic bureaucracy, wild overspending, huge debt, a squabbling and corrupt class of career politicians, and now an economy so deep in doo-doo that the whole thing may need to be bailed out by the feds. Though maybe this is what Sólyom meant by contributing to the preservation of the identity of Hungarians in America…