I downloaded emacs 24.3 the other day. One thing I ran into when loading python-mode was this.

Only symbols are supported in `compiler-macro'

I googled it and was pointed to a github issue about using the proper python.el in the emacs-24 branch. Then I remembered that python.el is included with emacs 24.3. I ran emacs with

--debug-init

and found that I had a previous version from elpa. I removed that directory and all works again!