What is the best way to iterate over multiple lists at once?

The usual way is to use zip():

for x, y in zip(a, b):
    # x is from a, y is from b

This will stop when the shorter of the two iterables a and b is exhausted. Also worth noting: itertools.izip() (Python 2 only) and itertools.izip_longest() (itertools.zip_longest() in Python 3).

You can use zip:

>>> a = [1, 2, 3]
>>> b = ['a', 'b', 'c']
>>> for x, y in zip(a, b):
...   print x, y
... 
1 a
2 b
3 c