Actually the displayhook should print the repr.

birkenfeld · birkenfeld · commit dd98e04c5737 · 2009-04-02T17:43:07.000Z
diff --git a/Lib/pdb.py b/Lib/pdb.py
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ def displayhook(self, obj):
         """Custom displayhook for the exec in default(), which prevents
         assignment of the _ variable in the builtins.
         """
-        print obj
+        print repr(obj)
 
     def default(self, line):
         if line[:1] == '!': line = line[1:]
