"Seemingly untroubled by self doubt"

So says Scott Shane in his profile of John Bolton in the NYT:

Seemingly untroubled by self doubt, Mr. Bolton, whom former Senator Jesse Helms once called "the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon," has never shied from a dispute nor hesitated to shatter a consensus. In his office he displays a grenade designating him as "Truest Reaganaut," a telling gift from former colleagues at the United States Agency for International Development.

Here's a telling quote reported by Sonni Efron in the LA Times:

"For a conservative, the State Department is enemy territory," said Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative think tank that is Bolton's alma mater.

Keep in mind that these are testimonials from Bolton's friends.