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Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin, we learned yesterday, will join the national GOP presidential ticket at the party's convention next week.

I decided to do an Internet search last night and this morning through other publications' Web sites.

I wanted to see how surprised media outlets were, whether in California or across the Atlantic, of Sen. John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was and get an early taste of the reactions of analysts.

Some of the more commonly-used words were "gamble" and "popular," the latter referring to Alaska. The Globe and Mail, a paper based in Toronto, Canada, wins my headline award: “A vice-presidential ‘Hail Mary.'"

More headlines and leads from media analyses:

"A gun-toting former beauty queen?" and "McCain shocks party with VP choice." -- The Guardian

"Calculated ... aimed at picking up (Hillary) Clinton supporters." --Wall Street Journal

"Bold, exciting -- but also stupid." --The Financial Times (London)

“NEVER let it be said that politics deals no surprises.” --The Economist online

"The Barracuda: Sarah Palin adds energy and sizzle to McCain campaign." --BBC

Reuters took an energy angle to its lead, calling Palin a “drilling advocate” who also spars with oil companies: “Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is seen as a strong advocate for opening new areas to oil drilling, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but has taken a hard line in negotiations with oil companies and raised taxes on the state's energy producers.”

"...a tough-talking social conservative with credentials as a reformer." --Chicago Tribune

"McCain takes direct aim at female voters." --National Public Radio, analysis

"If she does a good job at the convention and survives about three weeks of serious media scrutiny — no horrible gaffes, no unforgivable I-don't-knows to gotchya questions (fair and unfair), no botched hostile interviews — she will emerge as the single most inspired VP pick in modern memory and she will give the Democrats migraines for a long time to come, assuming there are no terrible skeletons we don't know about." --Jonah Goldberg, the National Review.

"... The most manifestly ordinary person ever to be nominated for a major party ticket." "In this year of bittergate and Britney-gate and McCain-has-seven-houses-gate," Silver wrote, "that could conceivably be a virtue; it's certainly less tone-deaf than a selection like Mitt Romney would have been." --The Atlantic Monthly's Nate Silver

“McCain rolls the dice”, “McCain’s choice of Palin a risk.” --Los Angeles Times

"From what little of Palin I know thus far, she seems to be about as good a pick from a major party as libertarians could hope for." --Radley Balko, Reason Magazine

The Washington Post said McCain had reclaimed his "maverick image" but suggested the move "could stymie efforts to cast Obama as unready."

The New Republic wasted no time in jumping straight into a critical analysis, calling the choice “astonishingly arrogant”: “It may be John McCain's birthday, but it seems like he's the one giving out gifts today. The selection of Palin doesn't simply, as others have pointed out, undermine the notion that Obama is too inexperienced to be president; it gives Obama the chance to actually take the edge on national security while making John McCain's age a central issue of the campaign.”

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review headline: "Popular in Alaska, Gov. Palin's a gamble for McCain."

The Sacramento Bee's headline on a story compiled through multiple reports: "Palin a high-risk, high-reward choice."

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "McCain takes an Alaska-sized gamble."

The Seattle Times’ analysis: “In picking little-known Sarah Palin as his running mate, Republican John McCain is betting, among other things, that having a woman on his ticket will make some voters take a new look at the race. “The possible upsides are clear-cut, as are potential risks.”

The Boston Globe headline writers wrote McCain has “stunned the political world.”

A writer for Bloomberg.com said McCain’s “decision to pass up conventional candidates and pick little-known, first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for the Republican ticket may appeal to undecided voters McCain needs to win. It also may blunt McCain's charges that Democrat Barack Obama isn't experienced enough for the White House.”