[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Again speaking personally I can think of all sorts of distinctive speech patterns of people I admire and respect - Jimi Hendrix, Rodney Dangerfield, Ronald Reagan, Rod Serling, Winston Churchill, Janis Joplin - any one which would be, I’m sure grating, if these people were people that had characters like Hussein, Hillary, etc. Again speaking personally I think we see the character of what’s inside and then we graft that onto the speech that we here.

Sure there are exceptions RFK jr. sounds awful no matter what, Barney Frank ditto.

Here’s one that maybe confirms what I’m saying - Have you ever heard Bob Cousy speak - the name that is attached to the award that goes to the best collegiate point guard in the country each year? The joke was that when Cousy was doing color commentary he would say “And that was wick wobey wid da webound” - but Cousy was cool so you just accepted him speech defect and all.

[jmacusa]

Churchill had a good speaking voice but rumor has always abounded he had a stand-in doing his radio broadcasts. RFK was a horrible speaker, shows you how bad a Boston accent could be. Tone of voice alone isn't all there is to it. Good grammar and a good vocabulary are important as well. Two of the finest speakers of the English language in my opinion were the actors Walter Pigeon and Ronald Coleman. I don't know.. for me Serling borders on the monotonic, although his customary diphthong delivery usually pulled him away from being too monotonic. "Standing on the outskirts(inflection up an octave and hold)about to enter(drop and accentuate down/soto voce) The Twilight Zone''.