Politics

The Harris poll of 2,000 adults, conducted online for Web site Zillow.com, found 14 percent of respondents picked the Obamas as the people they most want living next door, while Sarah Palin tied for second place with Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi at 12 percent, The Orange County (Calif.) Register reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 17 percent of those polled picked "Octomom" Nadya Suleman as their least desirable neighbor, while reality TV divorcees Jon and Kate Gosselin got 16 percent of the vote. Palin also appeared on the least-desirable list with 11 percent of the vote.

The Ipsos Reid poll of 1,038 adults conducted Dec. 9-10 for the Canwest News Service and Global TV found 14 percent of respondents had lost their jobs in 2009 and the same percentage reported someone in their family lost a job.

On the matter of personal finances, 67 percent expressed varying degrees of optimism that their own finances would improve.

The exhausted Nevada Democrat changed his vote to "yes" in less than a second but the flub caused senators, both Democrat and Republican, to burst into laughter, The New York Times reported Thursday.

"I spent a very restless night last night trying to figure out how I could show some bipartisanship and I think I was able to accomplish that for a few minutes," Reid told reporters at a news conference following the 60-39 vote.

He later said he was just distracted, the newspaper reported.