Adding a "var" keyword, similar to that of Javascript, was discussed on the Python mailing list a while ago. See here:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2006-October/00...
193 karma · joined December 11, 2010
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2006-October/00...
If you compare a number with a string or the comparison
involves numerical strings, then each string is converted
to a number and the comparison performed numerically.