What you say about the conditions of the game having changed is exactly why I suggested you might get something like a liberal Instapundit out of Salon blogs.

The mainstream-to-left exposure blogging will get from Salon's lefty community is the next most likely place to see the sort of paradigm shift that produced Instapundit.

Brian's move is useful, too, though. And linking back to some of our supposedly apolitical but in some cases very liberal forebears who predate warblogging is also a good idea.

Got a long-assed response. I'd post it on Amish Tech Support, but Everyone's Internet is doing something hinky with users2. Mind if I post here for a bit?

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Because the moment a lefty turns establishment, they become conservative with time to protect what they think is rightfully theirs?

Ok ok ok... cheap joke. Supply and demand, Chuck. When the bloggers demand it and somebody supplies it, the Blogosphere will adjust naturally to promote that person through crosslinking and feedback until they are a parallel hub to balance Glenn Reynolds. The fact that it's being openly discussed and considered is the beginning of the process. All it takes now is an individual capable of providing the content and linkage to fit such a role.

EXPERTISE:

They will be an expert in their field, or at least well-versed in it and able to bring together experts in the field. Someone famous with time to burn and a desire to withdraw from ordinary celebrity into a cyber-retirement could accomplish that... a Wil Wheaton perhaps? People will point to them naturally as "Hey, I agree with what this guy said" or "Check this out, it's important."

Also, people want to get word from someone who is on the scene. Who cares what a thousand pundits back in the States think about the Drudge Report story about a bread shortage in Israel... what's really going on down there from the perspective of an unbiased ordinary person? Hence, Not-A-Fish or Tal G or others get looked to as the "correspondent" in that region for the Blogosphere. Same goes for other countries, regions, fields, philosophies, or connections to other entities of interest.

TRAFFIC INBOUND:

Of course, it would help if that individual could also manage to build up a network of links from the traditional media establishment resources, too. The whole blogger-journalism relationship thing is still rather important and it would certainly jumpstart the career of an ordinary blogger up to the eighth rank for coronation

TRAFFIC OUTBOUND:

Part of Reynolds' ascendancy has not only been because of his having been there when the spark ignited and his positions, but it's been perceived that a link from him could easily direct a large number of visits in a particular person's direction. This promotion ability has, over time, reduced the number of his own positions and thoughts being posted and turned his posts more into a "look at this stupid thing or takedown" or "check this out I agree with it" kind of list.

It's fed upon itself with the "core" upper-eschelon bloggers linking each other and sometimes tossing scraps to the second-tier bloggers, with an understood arrangement of links back and allowing the flow of discussion to remain centered on how Reynolds or Kaus or others tend to direct it.

The King can make his Dukes, so-to-speak, and the Dukes are loyal to their King. Now and then, an Earl rise up, or a Baron falls out of grace. The system solidifies over time, but if someone else were to naturally obtain that kind of traffic-directing power, they would eventually settle into a "hub" or blog star role.

CONTENT:

The "blog star" must provide content that fulfills a demand or need.

Reynolds' content has been the links and the pieces he writes for the traditional media, like his pieces in FOX NEWS. The political opinions in light of 9/11, Big Ashcroft Is Watching You, and the Middle East situation are fairly popular, especially in light of mass media's failure to address its own biases and inability to fact-check. Online folks are too smart for that kind of chicanery being done in the name of journalism for a profit by mass-media, and the bloggers are tearing at the periphery in the hopes of digging to the center and feasting on the corruption within.

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs satisfied the demand and need for outrage at the world's amoral and duplicitous mistreatment of Israel in the face of the Islamist threat on all sides of it. Europe seems to have joined the Arab League in re-learning how to express its long-suppressed anti-Semitic nature, and it's through Little Green Footballs that those who otherwise feel powerless to strike back at Reuters or Amnesty International for their convenient omissions or blind eyes turned to the situation.

However, when I look at the kinds of material passed around by folks via e-mail, it's primarily humor. The Joe Cartoon Flash funnies and light bulb jokes and sex jokes that get passed around, well, there will come a time when the spark will hit and people will flock to the blogger sites where there's a high percentage of humor or satire

I point to the popularity among bloggers of Larry Miller, writer-comedian-pundit. The man not only can express an opinion and form an argument, but he can do it in ways that remind us that humor and satire are the ultimate weapons against arrogance and ignorance. The foolish can argue all day, but it cannot stand to be laughed at.

The next major blog star will provide a hub not for liberalism or conservatism, but to humor. Folks want to laugh, and the man or woman who picks up that pickaxe and mines out that humor for them at various sites, well, that will be the next person to wear the crown.

Time will tell.

By the way, if you want to see ascendancy in action, look at NZ Bear/Truth Laid Bear. There's the secret to kingmaking within the blogopshere: hits and crosslinking, combined with a schtick that folks want to get hits from in turn.

He's got folks talking up a storm about the validity and invalidity of his ecosystem, all the while he rises up towards the upper-eschelon. He sneezes, and Reynolds links him. Then, when he's gotten close enough to the core, he starts posting more opinion pieces with open-ended calls for debate and consideration.

Very clever. My hat's off to him for playing it that way so far, he's deserved it, and he ought to be ready to pick out the virtual stars or routers to connect to make the constellation or Veritas Ursa soon enough.

Who knows... who knows...

One slightly banal point to make: What Glenn does is actually really hard. Not just anyone could scour the web on a daily basis and produce a decent list of things they like, even if they never provided any commentary.

Dammit, Charles, it wasn't some liberal who "discovered" Chad Orzel. It was me, ME I tell you! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Ahem. Back to you, Charles.

So is Glenn the blogging equivalent of Kibo?

I'm not big fan of much of what Instapunidt says, but yes - what he does is very hard and he's quite good at it. Though he does slip into mutual appreciation society mode at times, he clearly makes an effort to be generous with his links, particularly in giving attention to new blogs.

That's some nice company to be included in. Thanks! :)

Certainly is.... =)

A few comments. Matthew Yglesias is absolutely right when he says that what Glenn does is hard. I simply don't have the time to link as often as he does. If a lefty Instapundit is to emerge it will have to be another academic or a full time writer like Andrew Sullivan. The rest of us would get fired from our day jobs if we tried to match his output.

I also agree somewhat on the issue of specialization. How Appealing has become one of the most popular sites on the web, and all it does is discuss appellate litigation! For some bloggers, specialization is the key to success. For others though, like me, who prefer to cover a range of topics beyond my field (I am also a lawyer), the specialization hook is not so useful.