>>15
Python has some language problems (especially with some dynamic scoping issues) that need to be resolved before a native compiler is possible. Right now, a bytecode interpreter is necessary until starkiller's hypothesis (that any arbitrary Python code can be statically type-checked) can be proven one way or another.
IIRC, the PyPy project could compile RPython to native code (which is how they're bootstrapping the interpreter), and one of the goals of the PyPy project (albiet a far-reaching goal) is to eventually provide either JIT or static compilation of Python code.
But on the JIT side, there's already Psyco which does a pretty damn good job.