Last week he was called naive for a promise to speak with a slew of tyrants and now Barack Obama is being similarly pegged for pledging to tackle terrorists in Pakistan.

Yesterday in a major foreign policy address, Obama warned Pakistan that if it did not act against al Qaeda in the northwest border area with Afghanistan, the U.S. would. Obama would draw down forces from Iraq and bolster forces in Afghanistan. Obama also took a jab at his rivals who voted to authorize the war, saying they became "co-author of a catastrophic war."

Those unkind words didn't fall on deaf ears as Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd sharply criticized Obama's bellicose position on Pakistan. "The way to deal with it is not to announce it, but to do it," Biden said. "The last thing you want to do is telegraph to the folks in Pakistan that we are about to violate their sovereignty...." Dodd said it's "dangerous and irresponsible to leave even the impression the U.S. would needlessly and publicly provoke a nuclear power." Bill Richardson said force should be a "last resort" because it could alienate Muslims.

However, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards left little difference between their positions on Pakistan and that of Obama. Clinton said if there's "actionable intelligence" on targets in Pakistan, they'd be captured or killed. Edwards said the U.S. should lean on Musharraf and hit terrorists if Pakistan doesn't comply.

Yesterday Clinton saved the vitriol for Vice President Cheney, saying he "plays politics with the lives of our troops" after Cheney said a Pentagon letter calling Clinton's request for withdrawal plans "enemy propaganda" was a "good letter."

Recent polls show Clinton's strongest card in the general election is female-support, specifically against Rudy Giuliani, writes The Politico's David Paul Kuhn. Recent Gallup, NBC/WSJ and Zogby polls show a "migration of ideologically moderate white women into the Clinton camp," women who've tilted Republican and previously shown "no particular enthusiasm for Clinton."

Meanwhile, the DNC and Obama are targeting the niche of religious/value voters. DNC chair Howard Dean is "building a sophisticated infrastructure" to woo these voters, specifically a field plan that persuading "religious voters" to support Democrats in battleground states, reports The Hill's Alexander Bolton. The DNC will use lessons from the midterms where it organized black clergy in Maryland, Catholics in the Pennsylvania Senate race and advertising in Oregon and Alabama. Obama's campaign will hold "faith forums" in South Carolina this month.

On the Republican side, there may be a Giuliani vs. Mitt Romney fight over health care if one of Giuliani's advisor's restarts her criticism of Romney's Massachusetts health care plan. ABC News' Teddy Davis writes Sally Pipes is an advisor to Giuliani who previously wrote Romney was "in cahoots" with Ted Kennedy for a plan that's a "gourmet recipe for runaway spending." Romney's health plan requires those who can afford health insurance to purchase it while Giuliani's doesn't.

In Republican horserace news, John McCain has canceled a series of northwestern fundraisers so he can push on the Senate ethics bill this week. Meanwhile, the AP's Philip Elliott writes that McCain's cutbacks are evident on the trail: McCain "flies commercial instead of on private jets, carries his own luggage and relies on supporters to drive him to events, including one that pulled away...with a flat rear tire." Frugality aside, "McCain has maintained a deep core of support.... Rivals know McCain's scrappy style and one-on-one skills have helped him before and he often is at his best when free of the cautions imposed on front-runners."

A top Tennessee fundraiser will not raise money for Fred Thompson after all, The Politico's Jonathan Martin reports. After talking about different arrangements, the fundraiser decided to not work for the campaign. Elsewhere, Thompson raised $14,000 in South Carolina last month.

That state's "make-or-break" Republican primary continues unsettled with disarray in the ranks, Iraq and immigration splintering upstate evangelical voters and no candidate with "both solid red-state credentials and a shot at the White House," writes the Christian Science Monitor's Ariel Sabar.

Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.