Stay tuned after the show for a message from Wi-Fi forward.

Good Thursday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman in Nashville. This morning, we're taking measure of Mike Bloomberg's campaign.

If a few campaign consultants were sitting at a bar and dreamed up how they'd run a nationwide presidential primary campaign with no constraints, no qualms, and no

care for tradition, it would look a lot like Mike Bloomberg's 2020 run. When a short, few,

77-year-old man with tens of billions of dollars, nothing to lose in an obsession with metrics

and efficiency in a deep well of distaste for Donald Trump runs for president, it goes a little

something like this.

They give the middle finger to the early states because why waste time spending months in Iowa and New

Hampshire ingratiating yourself with the population that represents 4% of the delegates you need to

become the Democratic nominee? Tradition is cute, they say, but nostalgia is not a good way to

spend money or win an election. Team Bloomberg has their eyes fixed on the following states, which they believe represent their best chance to get the nomination.

Arkansas, where Bloomberg is in first and has 31 delegates.

Florida, where public polling has him second and 219 delegates.

Missouri, where he's been in second, 68 delegates. North Carolina, where he's been in second, 68 delegates.

North Carolina, where he's been in third, 110 delegates.

And Texas, where he has a staff of more than 90 and 228 delegates.

And California, home to 415 pledged delegates.

Bloomberg spends gobs of money on everything.

There's the television advertising, the Facebook spending, and lavish staff salaries guaranteed through December with apartments in New York.

The events, anchored by Greg Hale, a longtime Dem Advanceman, who founded the Markham Group, or the envy of the field, and look much more like a late-stage general election than a primary rally.

The goal here is to create an era of professionalism and invincibility. That's why they're rolling

...