vim does not honor .vimrc setting for python files.
I'm using the same .vimrc and .vim from my Mac (vim7.3).
However, the behavior is different…
Inside my linode machine, :verbose set ts shows the value is "Last set from /usr/share/vim/vim74/ftplugin/python.vim".
On my mac, :verbose set ts shows the value is "Last set from ~/.vimrc".
This is driving me crazy… Any ideas?