Is Python an object based programming langauge?

[Roy Smith]

Tim Hammerquist <tim at vegeta.ath.cx> wrote:
> According to Smalltalk enthusiasts, definitely not.

AFAICT, if you ask a smalltalker, he'll tell you python is not OO because 
it's not more like smalltalk.  On the other hand, if you ask a C++ hacker, 
he'll tell you python is not OO because it's not more like C++.  Similarly 
for Java, etc.  Everybody seems to have their own definition, usually based 
on whatever they learned first.

I've got one guy I work with you insists python isn't OO for exactly one 
reason: because it doesn't implement private variables.