DONALD RUMSFELD has tried this before: turning a career legislator from Capitol Hill into a national politician and chief executive. In 1974, it was Gerald Ford, the accidental president fresh from years as House Republican leader. Ford thought tactically, not strategically. He was chronically reactive, rarely proactive. He waited for a consensus before stepping front and center on policy issues. Yet with the help of Rumsfeld, his White House chief of staff, Ford gradually changed, though not enough to gain election in 1976. Now Rumsfeld’s task is to transform Bob Dole from legislator to executive — and do it in roughly four months.

Not an easy job. And Rumsfeld, 64, known to his friends as Rummy, doesn’t even work full-time at Dole headquarters. When he arrived in June, he planned to spend two days a week; now he’s up to four or more. He’s already had an impact on the Dole campaign. At his instigation, there’s now an organized and disciplined policy process that runs on real, not geological, time. Rumsfeld hired Jerry Jones, a veteran of the Nixon and Ford White Houses, to drive the policy operation. “And he’s brougnt a lot more heavy thinkers into the process,” says former representative Vin Weber, who is Rumsfeld’s co-policy adviser.