Is there a simple way to remove multiple spaces in a string?

Question

Suppose this string:

The   fox jumped   over    the log.

Turning into:

Answer 1

" ".join(foo.split()) is not quite correct with respect to the question asked because it also entirely removes single leading and/or trailing white spaces. So, if they shall also be replaced by 1 blank, you should do something like the following:

" ".join(('*' + foo + '*').split()) [1:-1]

Of course, it's less elegant.