import re
def compare_strings(string1, string2):
  #Convert both strings to lowercase 
  #and remove leading and trailing blanks
  string1 = string1.lower().strip()
  string2 = string2.lower().strip()

  #Ignore punctuation
  punctuation = r"[.?!,;:-']"
  string1 = re.sub(punctuation, r"", string1)
  string2 = re.sub(punctuation, r"", string2)

  #DEBUG CODE GOES HERE
  print(___)

  return string1 == string2

print(compare_strings("Have a Great Day!", "Have a great day?")) #should be True
print(compare_strings("It's raining again.", "its raining, again")) #should be  True
print(compare_strings("Learn to count: 1, 2, 3.", "Learn to count: one, two, three.")) #should be  False
print(compare_strings("They found some body.", "They found somebody.")) #should be  False