How can I set default values for SafeConfigParser?

I have a config file as follows:

[job]
mailto=bob
logFile=blahDeBlah.txt

I want to read the options using SafeConfigParser:

values = {} 
config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
try:
    config.read(configFile)
    jobSection = 'job'

    values['mailto'] = config.get( jobSection, 'mailto' )
    values['logFile'] = config.get( jobSection, 'logFile' )
    # it is not there
    values['nothingThere'] = config.get( jobSection, 'nothingThere' )
.... # rest of code

The last line of course will throw an error. How can I specify a default value for the config.get() method?

Then again, if I have an options file as follows:

[job1]
mailto=bob
logFile=blahDeBlah.txt

[job2]
mailto=bob
logFile=blahDeBlah.txt

There seems to be no way to specify default options for job1 different from the default options in section job2.

You can also use a default ".ini" file and read it before your actual config file.

default.ini:

[job1]
mailto=jack
logfile=default.log

[job2]
mailto=john
logfile=default.log

config.ini:

[job1]
mailto=sparrow
logfile=blah.log

[job2]
logfile=blah2.log

parsing:

import ConfigParser  # For Python 3 use the configparser module instead (all lowercase)

config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
config.read('default.ini')
config.read('config.ini')

print config.get('job1', 'mailto')
# -> sparrow (from config.ini)

print config.get('job1', 'logfile')
# -> blah.log (from config.ini)

print config.get('job2', 'mailto')
# -> john (from default.ini)

print config.get('job2', 'logfile')
# -> blah2.log (from config.ini)