"Wynncore"'s boss has been all over that series of vacuums and tubes which some call "the Internet" this week. He did Kirk Kerkorian a favor by suggesting that he, Steve Wynn, would be tractable to buying anything the aging aviator had to sell ... even Circus Circus.

While Wynn may have been merely being playful, enjoying how much the worm has turned since then-MGM Grand forced him out of then-Mirage Resorts, his expression of interest helped goose MGM Mirage stock by 5%. Holders of Wynn Resorts shares, however, may have emitted a collective "Eek!" at the thought of Wynn buying yet another clown-themed casino (don't forget that he once owned the Boardwalk). WYNN shares slipped 3%.

If Steve Wynn on 60 Minutes is good, then 69 minutes with Steve Wynn must be better, right? Either way, here he is at the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2009. What's inarguable is that there is no other CEO in the gaming group -- no, not even Sheldon Adelson -- to whom people would listen for anywhere near that amount of time. True, many Americans do watch an hour-long TV show starring ex-casino mogul Donald Trump, playing a parody of CEO (or could it really be a cunningly disguised Alec Baldwin in the role of Old Fish Lips?) ... much as they do When Animals Attack! or World's Scariest Police Chases.

Bloomberg News cornered Wynn for a few minutes and the unscripted result was better than any televised fender-bender. [Warning: The audio is subject to frequent dropouts.] Wynn began by acknowledging that, times being what they are, Americans are scarcely obligated to visit Las Vegas.

One wishes certain umbrageous local figures would get that memo.

He also notes that Wynncore is cheek-by-jowl with "all the convention centers." So I take it that proposed Wynn Las Vegas/Encore convention center is now off the drawing board. Strip land acquisitions are flatly ruled out -- no doubt causing some long faces at Elad Properties, Triple Five and other companies that bought acreage at the top of the market (i.e., $33 million-$36 million/acre) and can't do squat with it now. Uncle Steve is not coming to their rescue, I'm afraid ... and why should he? As Wynn obliquely acknowledges, he's got plenty of land of his own, fully amortized but not developable in these tight-credit days.

But it's when the conversation turns to politics that things get well and truly interesting. Starting with an observation that the government is too fixated on infrastructure improvements, Wynn gradually works himself up into an fine rage. His description of President Obama's policies runs the gamut of "naive ... doesn't have much credibility ... unimpressed ... ridiculous shopping list ... the right ideas at the wrong time ... shotgun approach." He faults the current administration for lacking "experience and priorities" and -- in a somewhat ironic choice of analogy -- says that when a patient is undergoing major surgery, "you don't give 'em advice on a nose job."

You want must-see TV? This is it!

Unfortunately, Wynn is somewhat hamstrung when pressed for constructive alternatives. His one substantive answer is a proposal that Uncle Sam subsidize new hires if the employer provides health benefits. Beyond that, he falls back on a broad-brush invocation of tax policy (which "incentivizes people to do what the government wants them to do"). Wynn thumps the "tax policy" tub so relentlessly that he starts to sound like a personality-implanted version of Rep. John Boehner, pining for the return of the previous administration's economic policies as fiscal Viagra.

Give the man credit. He's got strong opinions and no fear about voicing them. He's a cheerfully impolitic figure in word-parsing times and the casino industry might be unbearably dull without him.