Here’s to getting your news and opinions in 140-word-or-fewer streams: Twitter and Current TV have partnered up to do real-time commentary on the presidential debates.

For those not on the cutting edge of media overindulgence, Twitter is a hub for friends, family and whoever else to stay connected with brief, frequent updates that generally answer one of two questions (“What are you doing?” or “What are you thinking?”). In other words, if you boiled Facebook down to just its status updates, you’d have Twitter. And Current TV is Al Gore’s new media baby, a news and culture channel that relies on fast-paced, colorful news and user-generated content.

Twitter and Current are heralding the move as a way to bring the debates to more people.

“The debate stage is only set for two candidates, but Current was founded to make room for millions of participants,” Current CEO Joel Hyatt said in a release. “We’re thrilled to work with Twitter and take advantage of their extremely powerful communication platform, giving people a chance to speak directly to Current’s nationwide television audience.”

Extremely powerful platform, indeed: In late July, bloggers marveled at how much faster Twitter “broke” the story about an earthquake in Los Angeles, well before any major media outlet, and then the pace at which those closest to the earthquakes disseminated information about them to the public en masse.

What’s fascinating, though, is not just Twitter’s power as a medium. It’s Twitter’s appeal to a younger generation of media users, people who live in a fast-paced, media-centric environment who simply don’t get as much of their news from the traditional outlets of past generations.

The Daily Editorial Board has long held that anything that gets more college students and 20-somethings involved in the electoral process is a good thing. The ability to process not just the debates, but running commentary of them as well while watching? A good thing. The integration of newer media that appeal to younger generations? A good thing. A chance to express themselves and their thoughts, feelings and opinions about the debates? A very good thing.

This partnership isn’t going to get more college students registered to vote, or drive them to the polls in November, at least directly. But what it will do is help engage an audience in a process that’s so vital to our democracy, and in the long run, that’s worth so much more.