In an appearance on MSNBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, Gov. Bill Richardson criticized Arizona’s recently-signed anti-immigration bill, saying, ”This law in Arizona is terrible. What the administration needs to do is challenge it because it’s unconstitutional. Immigration is a federal matter.”

“One hundred thousand demonstrators were out on the streets yesterday against this law around this country, dwarfing the tea [party] demonstrations,” Richardson said.

Richardson said that while he thinks there should be “earned legalization” for those who are already in the country illegally, he says that there is the need for more border security, including more border patrol agents and national guardsmen. Richardson ordered members of the National Guard to patrol the border in the bootheel area of New Mexico.

Richardson also spoke about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is threatening to strike land in Louisiana.

Richardson said he believes that BP is to blame for the spill and that they should have to pay for the oil spill.

Later in the day on Sunday, in Venice Louisiana, President Barack Obama said, “Let me be clear: BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill.”

“It’s terrifying,” Ramo told Meet the Press host David Gregory.

“What’s going on seems to a fundamental shift in the economy in the nature how jobs are created and why jobs are created,” Ramo says. “And that suggests that things could actually get much worse.”

Ramo notes later in the discussion that there have been no net jobs created since 1999.

Also discussing the story was CNBC anchor Erin Burnett and NBC political director Chuck Todd.

Among the reasons Powell cited in an interview with Tom Brokaw were Obama’s steadiness in recent weeks during the economic crisis and the narrowing of the Republican Party in recent years.

Watch the video of Powell explaining his reasons and his endorsement of Obama.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce announced the cancellation today in a news release. His campaign said it found out today that NBC plans to instead focus its Sunday “Meet the Press” program on the financial crisis.

In a statement sent to the Pearce campaign, Betsy Fischer, executive producer of “Meet the Press,” said, “Due to our need to focus the program on the escalating financial crisis, we are going to be unable to host this Sunday’s New Mexico Senate Debate. We hope you understand that as a news program we sometimes have to change our programming plans as major news dictates.”

Pearce said the debate “would have been a great opportunity” and he is disappointed, but pointed out that there are still three upcoming televised debates between him and Democratic candidate Tom Udall.

“We have three televised debates that are going to provide New Mexico voters with a great chance to see the two candidates share their very different views on the future of the country,” Pearce said. “We are working hard and looking forward to those upcoming debates.”

The debate schedule includes a debate on Wednesday hosted by KOB-TV, one on Oct. 18 hosted by KRQE-TV and one on Oct. 26 hosted by KOAT-TV. None of those Albuquerque television stations reaches Doña Ana County, the state’s second largest.

Udall spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said Udall “has been looking forward to debating Steve Pearce on ‘Meet the Press’ this Sunday.”

“He has been campaigning across the state and talking with New Mexicans about the severity of the current economic situation,” Padilla said. “He looks forward to debating Congressman Pearce on this and important issues during their three additional debates this month.”

When NBC scheduled the Meet the Press debate, pundits considered New Mexico’s Senate race one of the hottest in the nation, but Pearce, after gaining ground in the polls weeks ago, has lost ground in recent weeks. Udall has had a double-digit lead in all recent polls.