Wow! Trump totally fits and he was elected in 2016!ANOTHER POSSIBILITY
There is another possibility that I have thought of many times. In John's world, Americans were NOT apathetic. The character of Americans changed after hundreds of thousands died during the Y2K disaster. The U.S. government was no longer trusted. In 2005, people were bold enough to start a U.S. Civil War.
In our Worldline, G.W. Bush stole the 2000 and 2004 Elections, however, there was little protest over it. Here's where I'm giving you another possible scenario.
On John's Worldline, it's my guess that Americans revolted over Bush's stolen Election, over the Patriot Act, and over the Iraq War when no WMD were found. I think those were some of the biggest factors that sparked a Civil War on his Worldline.
With that in mind, it may be that Bush only served one term as President on John's Worldline.
If so, imagine that Obama was elected as President in 2004-2008. Maybe he even served two terms. We know that Obama connects himself to Lincoln. Imagine Hillary Clinton followed as President after Obama, which means Hillary could have been President in 2009. (If so, she also may have served two terms, 2008-2012 and 2012-2016.)
This would account for some of the differences in time. Here's what John said about the Presidents in 2005 and 2009:
Question: Your enemy was in the cities. Was the President in 2005 also on the enemy side? How did you feel personally about the President then?
John Titor: The President or "leader" in 2005 I believe tried desperately to be the next Lincoln and hold the country together but many of their policies drove a larger wedge into the Bill of Rights. The President in 2009 was interested only in keeping his/her power base.
It will be interesting to see who is elected as President in 2016...if we make it until then.