President Barack Obama announced his candidacy for re-election April 4. In the two weeks since, rumored Republican contenders still are grabbing headlines that suggest a widening GOP field.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was added to the list of potential candidates Monday with the launch of a donation-garnering website. Other candidates — ranging from noted Tea Partier U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., to business mogul and TV personality Donald Trump — have touted their credentials and beliefs at various political gatherings.

But few things are certain in the GOP arena, said Matt Grossmann, an MSU assistant professor of political science and expert on political campaigns and elections.

“There’s not a clear Republican nomination front-runner, and I don’t think anything’s really changed on that front,” Grossmann said.

Some of the more prominent names and possible candidates have yet to announce their candidacy officially, perhaps because it is relatively early in the game.

Such names include Republican power player Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the son of a former Michigan governor and brother of a former MSU trustee, who sought the GOP’s nomination leading up to the 2008 election.

The lack of a front-running Republican candidate could be worrisome for the party and a boon to Obama, said Doug Roberts, director of MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and expert in presidential politics.

Part of the problem for Republicans, Roberts said, stems from a combination of no front-runner and a wide distribution of dollars being spent on Republican political campaigns. But such is the case for any political party that does not hold the presidency, he said.

“The incumbency of the president of the United States is an enormous advantage,” Roberts said. “The incumbent can be raising money; he knows and his party knows that he’s going to be a good candidate. Each one of (the Republicans) has been struggling to raise money.”

And though it is early in the process and little seems to be atypical in the way of campaigns, Benjamin Kleinerman, an MSU assistant professor of political science and expert on national politics and elections, noted the GOP field is more wide open now than in the months leading up to the 2008 election.

“If the field remains as it is right now, if some of the bigger names don’t enter, then the Republicans probably would have cause for concern,” Kleinerman said. “I’m not sure these are candidates that can win a national election.”