Python Emacs Whitespace Annoyance

Python whitespace slowed me down when I tried to add a conditional around something similar to the following block in emacs22:

cat = ""
list = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
for thing in list:
    cat += thing + ','
print cat

I indented everything the entire block under the conditional and ended up with:

if (1):
    cat = ""
    list = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
    for thing in list:
        cat += thing + ','
        print cat

instead of (the last line became part of the loop):

if (1):
    cat = ""
    list = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
    for thing in list:
        cat += thing + ','
    print cat

I'm used to just doing an M-x indent-region when coding and not having to see the details of the block I'm indenting. This is handy when I'm wrapping a block in a conditional and don't want to think of the details of the block at that moment. Perhaps this has been solved so I'll read more about Python Mode.

[FIX]: Don't indent the region, shift the region. Shifting preserves other indentations.

C-c <: Shift the region to the left
C-c >: Shift the region to the right