This is a version of Ben James's answer, above:
>>> import datetime
>>> x = datetime.date.today()
>>> print x
2013-01-11
>>>
>>>
>>> print "Today's date is %s ..." % x
Today's date is 2013-01-11 ...
>>>
>>> print "Today's date is %r ..." % x
Today's date is datetime.date(2013, 1, 11) ...
>>>
When I ran this, it helped me see the usefulness of %r.