Deleted Python - how reinstall

You could try to boot the livecd, open a console and try to emerge python with

ROOT=/mnt/yourmountedlinuxpartition PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages emerge -av --usepkg python


--usepkg (-k)
Tells emerge to use binary packages (from $PKGDIR) if they are
available, thus possibly avoiding some time-consuming compiles.
This option is useful for CD installs; you can export
PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages and then use this option to have
emerge "pull" binary packages from the CD in order to satisfy
dependencies.


ROOT = [path]
Use ROOT to specify the target root filesystem to be used for
merging packages or ebuilds. This variable can be set in
make.conf(5) when PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT has a value other than /.
Defaults to /.

If that doesnt work you could try to find a binary package of python on the web ( a binary package for other distros will do too, it only has to be the version for your system, e.g. x86 / amd64 ). If you take a binary package for debian or ubuntu you could simply unpack it AFAIK. Yet this is not a clean solution because you willl have files on your system that are not tracked by portage.

# cd
# tar xzf /usr/portage/distfiles/Python-2.2.1.tgz
# cd Python-2.2.1
# ./configure --with-fpectl --infodir=/usr/share/info/ --mandir=/usr/share/man
# make
# make install prefix=/usr
# rm /usr/bin/python 2>/dev/null
# ln -s /usr/bin/python2 /usr/bin/python