Board Thread:Television/@comment-24416813-20140115063611/@comment-1894786-20171203155106

From my understanding Iron Man 3 takes place in Christmas of 2012, since the film begins in 1999, and then jumps forward 13 years (1999 + 13 = 2012).

During December of 2012, the President in the White House would be the one on their way out, not the one on their way in. (As shown in real life by how both Bush and Obama stayed in the White House as President until January of the next year). So Ellis was the 2008-2012 President, and is confirmed by AoS to be the 2012-2016 President as well.

My headcanon was always that Bush never got his second term in the MCU, Obama did. But Obama only served one term for whatever reason, then Ellis rose to power. Because Iron Man 2 does show the "Hope" posters, Luke Cage does mention him singing at a public ceremony, and now Runaways confirms his presidency through an off-hand line about the "Obama Administration".

Now, the Clinton reference are the "I'm With Her" shirts, and one of the kids wearing them mentions that it no longer fills them with "unspeakable sadness", meaning that like in real life, Clinton lost in the MCU. Since she ran in real life in 2008, maybe she did as well in the MCU and just used the "I'm With Her" slogan way back then.