import re

userString = input('Please enter a string to strip: ')
charStrip = input('Please enter any characters you\'d like to omit: ')

def stringStrip(userString, charStrip):
    if charStrip == '':
        noWhite = re.compile(r'[^\s][\w]+[^\s]')
        mo1 = noWhite.search(userString)
        print(mo1.group())
    else:
        noChar = re.compile(r'[' + charStrip + ']')
        mo2 = noChar.sub('', userString)
        print(mo2)

stringStrip(userString, charStrip)