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Former Vice President Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary in a landslide, earning 48.4% of the vote. Senator Bernie Sanders took second with 19.9% of the vote, followed by Tom Steyer with 11.3%, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 8.2% and Senator Elizabeth Warren with 7.1%. Steyer has since ended his campaign.

Biden’s win has been celebrated as a turning point for the former frontrunner, who has struggled in the crowded primary field, earning fourth, fifth and second place finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, respectively. Biden has also struggled to achieve a breakout moment in the debates as well as a funding surge like his opponents, and those combined factors led to a narrative that his campaign was on the ropes. His win in South Carolina reversed that narrative.

In his victory speech, Biden told the crowd, “All of those of you who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign … Just days ago, the press and the pundits had declared this candidacy dead. Now thanks to all of you … we’ve just won and we won big because of you.”

Now, the question on everyone’s mind is whether or not Biden’s win will affect Super Tuesday, where 14 states, American Samoa, and democrats living abroad will cast their votes. Up for grabs are 1,357 delegates. To clinch the nomination, a candidate must receive 1,991. And delegates are different from votes, thanks to the overly complicated rules of the democratic primary.

And while the wins and losses of the first four states have driven the media narrative, those wins are numerically inconsequential: as of now, less than 5 percent of delegates have been chosen. That means that more than 95 percent are open for the taking. The count currently stands that Sanders is in the lead with 56 delegates, with Biden right behind him with 51.

If this primary season has shown us anything, it’s that the way we select candidates is bizarrely outdated, inherently biased, and too damn long. Everyone has been collectively crapping their pants over the results, but predictions and assumptions are still too early to be accurate.

Meanwhile, a combination of die-hard campaigners and Russian bots are flooding social media with hashtags telling literally every candidate to drop out. This is an incredibly stressful time not just for democrats, but for citizens everywhere who fear four more destructive years of Trump at the wheel. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and emotions are running hot.

But trying to predict the winner before Tuesday is akin to trying to predict the winner of a football game two minutes into the first quarter. There’s a lot of game left to play, and anything can happen.

In the meantime, take a deep breath, and vote for the candidate you believe in, whoever that is. Better yet, canvass, phone bank, and support your person. Nothing quells primary anxiety like getting out there and doing the work.

Is your state voting in Super Tuesday? Has Biden’s win swayed you in any way? Let us know!

(via HuffPost)

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Cold Open -- The skit begins as a pretty bad one featuring Pence (Beck Bennet) and Ben Carson's (Kenan) bumbling attempts to handle the Coronavirus, but it improves dramatically when Bloomberg (Armisen) shows up, and then Elizabeth Warren (Kate) shows up as Bloomberg's nightmare stalker (seriously, even if Warren ultimately has no chance, she has to stay in the race just to terrorize Bloomberg). Larry's David's Bernie comes out kvetching about what a hand-cougher Buttigieg is, and John Mulaney plays the role of Joe Biden this week. I wasn't keen on his impression at first, but ultimately he delivers. All in all, a pretty good opener that begins a theme tonight of skits starting out small and growing exponentially. (Score: 7 out of 10)

John Mulaney Monologue -- Mulaney gives a great monologue, which is all stand-up material about boomer dads, the founding fathers, the Bill of Rights, and an amazing story about an experience he had with a Make-a-Wish kid. I wish all the monologues could be this good. (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

The Sound of Music -- Rolf and Liesl from Sound of Music sing a lovely little ditty about how Rolf is 40-something-year-old Nazi who lives with his mother and Liesl is a teenager. It's funny and smart, but not that funny and smart. (Score: 6 out of 10)

Uncle Ron -- Mulaney plays an angry uncle upset because his nephew (Pete Davidson) meme'd him, and those memes went viral. My 12-year-old kid will love this one. And so will Mat. I'm sure that's just a coincidence! (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Kyle Mooney Sketch -- Man, I don't know why they gotta waste 4 and a half minutes on a Mulaney episode for a Kyle Moony sketch. So, Mooney -- who is tired of always playing a dork/nerd/dweeb -- decides to beef up with the help of Justin Theroux so that he can be in a strip-club sketch. Look, it's not the worst Kyle Mooney sketch, but it's still a Kyle Mooney sketch. (Watch Here) (Score: 4 out of 10)

Say, Those Two Don't Seem to Like Each Other -- A recurring sketch (I think from the last time Mulaney was on?) about two sisters trying to sabotage one another before meeting the Admiral, who will choose one to marry. The Admiral, however, is only interested in their little brother, a sailor recently promoted to "pass-around bottom." It's marginally funny, but even still, Mulaney is one of the few guys who can get away with this many gay jokes in a skit. I don't really understand why Mulaney can get away with it, but he can. (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Weekend Update -- Most of tonight's "Update" is Coronavirus related. In fact, Che just gives up, takes off his tie, and stops hiding his drinking problem. It's modestly amusing. Easily the best part of "Update," however, is Chris Redd complaining about what a terrible Black History Month it has been. (Score: 5.5 out of 10 for Che/Jost, 8 out of 10 for Redd)

Airport Sushi -- Here's what you've all been waiting for. I knew exactly what was coming when Pete Davidson orders sushi from a La Guardia airport convenience store. "Phantom of LaGuardia" completes the Mulaney trilogy (along with "Bodega Bathroom" and "Diner Lobster.") This one features a very special guest in Jake Gyllenhaal as pajama guy going through security, and David Byrne doing "On a Plane to Nowhere!" It's why you stayed up to watch Mulaney's SNL and it was worth every second. You can go to sleep now. (Score: 8 out of 10)

Forgotten Figures of Black History -- This skit takes us all the way back to 1947 and spotlights Terrence Washington, the first Black man to boo Jackie Robinson. It's fine. (Watch Here) (Score: 4.5 out of 10)

“Penny, our friend, has gained another year. But long ago she threw it in gear.” Cameron Crowe first details the soulful and selfless side of Penny Lane, the heroine of his 2000 coming-of-age classic, with a poem. “She says she’s retired but we’ve heard it all before. She chose us, in Penny Lane we trust. She is a fan of this band, much more so than us.”

Loosely based on the director’s own teenage years as a music critic, Almost Famous follows William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a precocious 15-year-old journalist who accompanies the up-and-coming rock band Stillwater on their tour bus across America. Also on board are the group’s devoted muses, the Band-Aids, led by the free-spirited Penny (“God’s gift to rock ’n’ roll”) played to perfection by a beguiling Kate Hudson.

Crowe’s film not only succeeds in capturing the self-destructive behaviour of touring musicians, it’s also a potent love letter to the music itself and the escape it can provide a person. The story is told through the eyes of an idealistic kid who sees the real world, witnesses its cruelties and heartbreaks, and yet still manages to find that small glimmer of hope, initially in the form of Penny’s warm embrace.

Hudson auditioned four times for the role, turning down several other parts in the process. “[Cameron] saw me as the sister,” she later explained. Her persistence paid off: she was awarded Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes for her astonishing performance. I remember being captivated by Hudson from the very moment she appears outside the concert hall, stepping out of the shadows to reveal to William that she and her friends aren’t “groupies” but “Band-Aids”.

Her blonde curls and purple sunglasses are positively luminous in the dark sky, and her soft voice and bewitching eyes are enough to make William fall in love with her. Hudson brings a familiarity to Penny. She’s a girl we might have come across growing up, or a woman we’ve always dreamed of meeting, one who presents a lively exterior but is secretly terrified of showing vulnerability. The more time she spends with William, the more her defences crumble and the more open she becomes.

Penny is a role model. She’s ambitious and passionate, someone in tune with the spirit and attitudes of the era; though over the course of the film she slowly turns into a victim of its most disillusioning, misogynistic aspects. Hudson’s performance is heartbreaking, but what makes her character so relatable is that she is infinitely more complex than her breezy, fun-loving personality suggests.

This is most poignantly realised in the scene where Penny is shown dancing on a trash-covered concert hall floor, a single red rose swinging from her fingers in time to Cat Stevens’ ‘The Wind’. It feels like her own personal elegy for rock ’n’ roll and the life she is living. When she sits down and looks around the empty room, she realised that she is once again entirely alone. She’s dancing on the grounds of heartbreak, reflection, injustice and love, and it’s perfect.

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