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For me, I employ presidential terms as memorable 4 year labels, much the same as Olympiads (Beijing 2008, Sydney 2000, Barcelona 1992). It’s got zero to do with (geo) political influence. The Olympiads work as point in time “beats”, while presidential terms are “long tones”. Weird memory functions.

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Fun fact, the "olympiad" is the whole 4 year period. The name of the event that you are referring to is "olympic games".

The news in the media (and outside) is so full of this that I might even be better at naming US presidents and their terms in reverse than German chancellors. The two term limit helps, to be fair. We're only on the fourth since I was born, vs 8 (counting non-consecutives) in the US. (Like, of course I can name ours, but not the exact years)

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