A speaking mannerism that was guaranteed to whiten my knuckles was the practice of a speaker posing a series of obvious questions and answering them in the next breath (usually prefixed with "Absolutely.. ")
Eg: "Would I prefer it if the PVR rate was less than 5%? Absolutely - of course I would. Do I think it'll happen soon? No I don't. Do I sound like an idiot when I do this? Sure I do."
