<p>Is there a way in Python to handle XML files similar to the way PHP's SimpleXML extension does them?</p>

<p>Ideally I just want to be able to access certain xml datas from a list object.</p>

There is a long list of libraries associated with XML processing on the
Python wiki
. Note that a number of them are included in the standard library. Most of them will do what you are looking for:
to access certain xml datas from a list object
which is a bit vague, and perhaps some more concrete use-case might narrow down that list for you.