A new Rasmussen Reports poll out today has Gov. Bill Richardson losing ground in a potential head-to-head match up with GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani but gaining ground against another GOP candidate, Fred Thompson.

The new poll finds that, in a head-to-head contest, 47 percent of likely voters picked Giuliani, while 39 percent picked Richardson. The eight-point lead is greater than the six-point edge Giuliani had over Richardson in the group’s June poll.

Thompson, in the new poll, had a one-point lead over Richardson, 41 percent to 40 percent. Two months ago, he led Richardson by eight points.

The newest survey of 1,200 likely voters was conducted Aug. 3-5 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.

Other responses in the survey present a clearer picture of voter attitudes. Richardson is viewed as politically moderate by 34 percent of those surveyed – far more than the number who see him as conservative or liberal. Giuliani is seen as moderate by 45 percent – also far more than the number who see him as conservative or liberal.

Moderates like Giuliani over Richardson.

Thompson is viewed by 43 percent as conservative, while 23 percent said he’s moderate and 6 percent said he’s liberal. More moderates would pick Richardson over Thompson than they would the governor over Giuliani.

That might put a dent in Richardson’s argument that he’s the most electable among the Democrats. Perhaps that depends on who gets the GOP nomination.

Richardson has a bigger problem: He’s still unknown to about a third of likely voters. However, his numbers have improved slightly since June. Those who view him favorably have increased from 33 percent to 35 percent, and those who view him unfavorably have decreased from 39 percent to 32 percent.

Upcoming schedule includes two forums

Richardson won’t likely gain any moderate or conservative points by participating in a candidate forum on Thursday sponsored by the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign, but primaries aren’t about those voters. After wrapping up a visit to New Hampshire today he’ll head to California for the forum, which begins at 7:15 p.m. MST on Thursday. I think you’ll be able to watch it live online by clicking here.

Richardson will stay in California to campaign through Friday. He has no public events scheduled Saturday and Sunday, and will spend Monday in New Mexico.

From Tuesday to Aug. 19, Richardson will be in Iowa to campaign. He’ll attend a candidate debate sponsored by the DNC to be held on the 19th at 7 p.m. MST. It will be the second DNC-sponsored debate of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Lives wasted in Iraq?

Meanwhile, Richardson is taking heat for a speech he was to give today in New Hampshire. Among the prepared remarks released in advance of today’s speech to educators, according to the Associated Press, was this quote:

“We need to get out of Iraq, where precious lives and needed dollars have been wasted,” Richardson was to say. “We could use these resources to improve our schools and make the economy, once again, work for the middle class.”

State GOP spokesman Scott Darnell brought the quote to my attention.

“Is he actually saying that the lives of our soldiers who have died in Iraq have been wasted? I wonder what the families of our fallen soldiers would say about such an ignorant statement,” Darnell wrote in an e-mail. “No soldier ‘wastes’ his/her life when they’re fighting to protect the American people. These men and women have performed admirably, and are doing an outstanding job – and neither their missions nor their lives are ‘wasted.’”

The quote was part of prepared remarks, so it was a calculated statement by the Richardson campaign. It could certainly be interpreted to mean soldiers’ lives are being wasted, or it could be a reference to civilian deaths, or both.

Either way, I’m guessing Richardson will have to explain this one. Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel took a lot of heat from within his own party for saying that soldiers killed in Vietnam died in vain, but he stood by the assertion.