Rough proof of concept to display blog posts similar to a topic view in a forum. Save the file as a plugin and drop the [discussion] shortcode in a page.

discussion-view.php

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: Discussion View
 * Version: 0.1.0
 * Description: Display blog posts similar to a the topic view in a forum.
 * Author: Brady Vercher
 */

class DiscussionView {
	public function load() {
		add_action( 'init', array( $this, 'init' ) );
		add_action( 'wp_head', array( $this, 'styles' ) );
	}

	public function init() {
		add_shortcode( 'discussion', array( $this, 'shortcode_handler' ) );
	}

	public function shortcode_handler( $attr = array() ) {
		global $wpdb;

		$sql = "SELECT c.comment_post_ID, c.comment_author, d.max_date as comment_date, p.post_title, p.comment_count, u.display_name
			FROM $wpdb->comments c
			INNER JOIN ( SELECT comment_post_ID, MAX( comment_date ) max_date FROM $wpdb->comments GROUP BY comment_post_ID ) d
			INNER JOIN $wpdb->posts p
			INNER JOIN $wpdb->users u
			ON c.comment_post_ID=d.comment_post_ID AND c.comment_date=d.max_date AND c.comment_post_ID=p.ID AND p.post_author=u.ID
			WHERE c.comment_approved='1' AND comment_type='' AND post_status='publish' AND post_password='' AND post_type='post'
			ORDER BY comment_date DESC
			LIMIT 30";

		$topics = $wpdb->get_results( $sql );

		ob_start();
		if ( ! empty( $topics ) ) {
			?>
			<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="discussion-view">
				<thead>
					<tr>
						<th>Post Title</th>
						<th style="text-align: center">Comments</th>
						<th>Last Commenter</th>
						<th>Last Comment (CST)</th>
					</tr>
				</thead>
				<tbody id="the-list">
					<?php foreach ( $topics as $topic ) : ?>
						<tr class="<?php echo $this->get_row_classes( $topic ); ?>">
							<td>
								<a href="<?php echo get_permalink( $topic->comment_post_ID ); ?>#comments"><?php echo $topic->post_title; ?></a>
								<span class="dv-post-author"><em>by <?php echo $topic->display_name; ?></em></span>
							</td>
							<td class="dv-comment-count"><?php echo $topic->comment_count; ?></td>
							<td><?php echo $topic->comment_author; ?></td>
							<td class="dv-datetime"><?php echo $this->format_datetime( $topic->comment_date ); ?></td>
						</tr>
					<?php endforeach; ?>
				</tbody>
			</table>
			<?php
		} else {
			echo '<div class="user_content"><p>No comments yet!</p></div>';
		}

		return ob_get_clean();
	}

	public function get_row_classes( $topic ) {
		$classes = array();

		if ( mysql2date( 'Y-m-j', $topic->comment_date) == date( 'Y-m-j', current_time( 'timestamp', 1 ) ) ) {
			$classes[] = 'today';
		}

		return implode( ' ', $classes );
	}

	public function format_datetime( $datetime ) {
		$date = mysql2date( 'Y-m-j', $datetime );

		if ( $date == date( 'Y-m-j', current_time( 'timestamp', 1 ) ) ) {
			$display = 'Today ' . mysql2date( 'g:i A', $datetime );
		} elseif ( $date == date( 'Y-m-j', current_time( 'timestamp', 1 ) - 60*60*24 ) ) {
			$display = 'Yesterday '. mysql2date( 'g:i A', $datetime );
		} else {
			$display = date( 'M j, Y g:i A', strtotime( $datetime ) );
		}

		return $display;
	}

	public function styles() {
		?>
		<style type="text/css">
		.discussion-view { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #e1dfd6; border-width: 1px 1px 0 1px;}
		.discussion-view th { padding: 8px 5px; color: #444; font-weight: bold; background-color: #f3f3ea;}
		.discussion-view tbody tr:nth-child(odd) { background-color: #f6f6f6;}
		.discussion-view tbody tr.today td a { font-weight: bold;}
		.discussion-view tbody tr.today td.dv-datetime { font-weight: bold;}
		.discussion-view td { padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #e1dfd6; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 0;}
		.discussion-view td.dv-comment-count { text-align: center;}
		.discussion-view td .dv-post-author { display: block;}
		</style>
		<?php
	}
}

$discussion_view = new DiscussionView();
add_action( 'plugins_loaded', array( $discussion_view, 'load' ) );