A few weeks ago I did a little research for a client that involved creating a list of Republican, conservative or libertarian-leaning political blogs in Oklahoma. Coming from the robust Tennessee political blogosphere, heavily populated by a number of well-read (and well-written) blogs by people from all over the political spectrum, I thought my task would be to immerse myself in Oklahoma's political blogosphere and find the 10 or 15 best and most-read political blogs in the Sooner state.

Boy, was I wrong.

What I found was a very anemic conservative political blogosphere. I had trouble coming up with a dozen political blogs total, never mind finding 10 to 15 really good blogs with goodly sized readership.

I'm not sure why - and haven't spent much time researching it - but it is becoming increasingly clear to me that Tennessee's political blogosphere is much larger and more robust and varied than that of other similar-sized states, with many bloggers writing about government and politics not just at the federal level but also at the state, local and even community level.

Oklahama's sparse right-leaning blogosphere popped into my mind this afternoon when I read a story in today's Washington Post headlined Online, GOP Is Playing Catch-Up.

"There is a widening gap between Democrats and Republicans on the Internet," says the WaPo story, which examines the reasons for that gap, which is evident in such measures as page views for various presidential candidates' websites, the number of "friends" candidates have on their MySpace, YouTube and FaceBook social-networking pages, and even in online fundraising.

The Post article includes some comments by David All, founder of TechRepublican.com on reasons for the red/blue digital gap.

But an underlying cause may be the nature of the Republican Party and its traditional discipline -- the antithesis of the often chaotic, bottom-up, user-generated atmosphere of the Internet.

"We've always been a party of staying on message," All said. "It's the Rush Limbaugh model. What Tony Snow says in the White House filters down to talk radio, which makes its way to the blogs."

Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank that in recent months has been advising Democratic members of Congress and their staffs on how to take full advantage of the Web, argues that the culture of Democrats is a much better fit in the Internet world. "What was once seen as a liability for Democrats and progressives in the past -- they couldn't get 20 people to agree to the same thing, they could never finish anything, they couldn't stay on message -- is now an asset," Leyden said. "All this talking and discussing and fighting energizes everyone, involves everyone, and gets people totally into it."

I believe All and Leyden are right - although, as Tennessee's strong and influential conservative blogosphere shows, the traditional top-down message discipline of the Republican Party doesn't have to be allowed to stifle the growth of a conservative blogosphere.

Tennessee's "red" blogosphere is most certainly not just an amplifier for today's GOP talking points out of Washington. For one thing, a number of Tennessee's conservative, libertarian and Republican bloggers don't write strictly about national politics and policy. A number of them - including myself - focus on state-level politics and policy, and swerve into national stuff on frequent occasion.

For another, Tennessee's "red" bloggers come at issues from a variety of perspectives, and focus on different things from fiscal policy to education to social issues.

Another key to the growth of Tennessee's "red" blogosphere has, I believe, been its willingness to engage the liberal side of the blogosphere in civil debate and conversation, both online and in a variety of blogger meet-ups and such. Conversation is more interesting when it engages other points of view, and Tennessee's blogosphere does that with relish. And interesting conversations draw more participants.

Over the five-plus years that I've been writing my blog, BillHobbs.com, a number of frequent readers of my blog have gone on to start their own blogs, joining the conversation and adding their own voice, perspective and expertise to the political debate - increasing the overall audience for the blogs. As the blogosphere's audience grows, inevitably, more readers will become bloggers.

A final key, I believe, has been the success of a number of bloggers to court and gain media attention for their blogs - on talk radio, in newspapers and on local television news - eore Nashville's WKRN Channel 2 hired a full-time blogger and started systematically following and reporting on what "Nashville Is Talking About" on the blogs. (WKRN subsequently hired a second blogger, to write its politically-focused VolunteerVoters.com. That blogger, A.C. Kleinheider, comments on the WaPo story here.)

Can Tennessee's healthy right-leaning blogosphere be replicated in other states? I believe it can, though it will take hard work to plant the seeds, recruit the bloggers and help them do it. The key isn't teaching people "how to blog" but how to build an online community. Blogs don't flourish as islands in the media stream - they flourish when they build bridges to other blogs, to the media, to readers and to elected officials and political candidates.

I have some thoughts about how such success could be accomplished, though it isn't clear to me today that there is a national Republican organization that would be the right vehicle to fund and organize such a recruitment and teaching effort.

Until there is, Tennessee's right-leaning blogosphere may be the exception in world where the Democrats are vastly outpacing the GOP online.

Update: Terry Heaton, a former Nashvillian and broadcasting/new-media consultant and visionary instrumental in helping WKRN launch NashvilleIsTalking.com, comments on the WaPo story:

Here is my overly simplified reason for this, and it follows another institution’s failure to grasp the value of the web. The GOP’s values follow the modern era’s rules of order. It is very much the party of top-down thinking. While republicans complain about big government, the truth is they are the law and order party, the command-and-control group, the clique that needs to be in charge, with a tightly controlled organization that flows from the top.

This is a similar position of the evangelical church (see my post below), and this group has been noticeably absent from the cutting edge of the web as well. This is odd, because evangelicals have always been at the forefront of communications. Two of the first transponders on the first Satcom satellite went to Christian broadcasters, for example.

The reason these groups don’t like the web is that it’s not a mass medium. It’s much more bottom-up and grassroots, and the GOP doesn’t play well in such a postmodern cultural marketplace. Neither does the evangelical church, because God, the Father, is the ruler of their world. Pomos, as I’ve written before, much prefer the concept of God, the Holy Spirit.

In a similar way, the GOP only recognizes that which flows from the top. Late to the game? I’m not sure they even knew there was one.

There is. And there is a way to win it.