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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Septembers shock, Octobers surprise, early Novembers can knock a campaign sideways. In a presidential race's waning weeks, almost anything can happen -- bedlam in the Middle East, financial panic at home, a scandal in the headlines. And as Election Day ticks closer, candidates get less and less time to absorb the blow.
• Sometimes the kind of jolt known as an "October surprise" matters in the end. Other times it doesn't. But every campaign knows enough to worry about what might come.
• "A fall general election is a very wild ride," said Steve Schmidt, who managed Sen. John McCain's campaign and served on George W. Bush's re-election team. "It's a volatile ride. You're always on guard."
• Often the unforeseen sweeps in from overseas. This week's violent protests at U.S. diplomatic outposts and the armed attacks that killed the ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, grabbed a presidential race focused on the domestic economy and spun it around to foreign policy.
• Republican nominee Mitt Romney seized on the unrest in Libya, Egypt and then Yemen to criticize President Barack Obama as a weak world leader willing to appease Islamic extremists. Obama portrayed Romney as untested in foreign policy and rushing to politicize a tragedy before fully understanding the facts.
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• BOSTON (AP) -- With protests at U.S. embassies and four Americans dead, Mitt Romney is suddenly facing a presidential election focused on a foreign policy crisis he gambled wouldn't happen.
• It did -- and at a bad time for the GOP hopeful. Momentum in the race is on President Barack Obama's side and Republicans are fretting over the state of their nominee's campaign.
• To shift the trajectory, Romney's plan boils down to this: Spend big money on TV and work harder.
• It's unclear how long this round of Middle East unrest will last, and Romney's

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