For the past few weeks, President Barack Obama and the GOP have been treating the 2012 campaign as if Mitt Romney is the man to beat, practically ignoring the fact that Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are still in the race.

Obama’s campaign recently shifted its focus to Romney, requesting more years of his tax returns. In return, Romney’s campaign said Obama is trying to distract the American people from his presidential shortcomings.

Right now, Romney as 659 delegates and is the closest to the required 1,144 to clinch the GOP nomination. Though this is closer to the nomination than Santorum’s 275 or Gingrich’s 140, the two of them are determined to stay in the race.

On Fox News Sunday, Gingrich admitted that Romney is leading and has won a number of primaries, but he won’t give up trying to influence the GOP’s platform.

In the same interview, Gingrich made the point to mention that if Romney gets the nomination, he and the Republican Party will help him defeat Obama. So the president has more than just one man to defeat.

In any scenario, it’s a mistake to underestimate the underdog. WIth that said, Obama’s team may want to consider looking at all of this adversaries, because he seems to have many this 2012 election year.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.