Apparently micro-blogging your way through American politics has an enormous appeal. Twitter reported a 23 percent jump in signups from the previous week, and the company cited last week's presidential debates as the primary source for the increase.

Twitter, which announced the news on its blog, reported that updates during the debates increased 160 percent from the previous week and actual signups that night spiked 135 percent over the same evening during the previous week.

Increasingly, users and marketers have turned to Twitter as a lightening-fast method for spreading highly topical messaging. Tonight's vice presidential debate between Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden is expected to break previous Twitter traffic records.

Cable network Current TV is also working with Twitter to layer real-time Tweets over each of the presidential and vice presidential debates.