(FORTUNE Magazine) – IF EVER A MAN deserves the title of kingmaker, he is James A. Baker III, the master manager to whom George Bush most owes his status as President-elect. In less than three months, Baker, 58, chairman of the Bush campaign, turned a sometimes bush-league operation into the efficient machine that rolled over Michael Dukakis to victory. Earlier in the year, his sure-handed management of the economy as Treasury Secretary had helped lay the groundwork for Bush's election. His reward: becoming Secretary of State, a post in which he is likely to exert uncommon influence over economic as well as foreign policy. Baker's management style, as exhibited in the campaign and in the Cabinet, is a mixture of hardball and soft sell. Internally, this Texas-bred Princeton man is a tough boss, setting exacting standards and holding subordinates to them. Externally, he is a silver-tongued salesman, combining brains, charm, ^ and irreverent wit in a potent brew that is irresistible to legislators, diplomats, and the press. The New Republic calls him ''Mr. Schmooze.'' The Texan took hold of the Bush campaign August 18, the last day of the GOP convention. As always, his timing was impeccable: Bush's eloquently written and well-delivered acceptance speech had helped him to erase Dukakis's edge in the polls. Baker lofted that post-convention bounce into the solid momentum that led to Bush's decisive November win. He consolidated control of the campaign, taking it out of the hands of the committee of equals -- campaign manager Lee Atwater, the Vice President's Chief of Staff Craig Fuller, pollster Robert Teeter, adman Roger Ailes, and finance chairman Robert Mosbacher -- who had been running the show with predictably mediocre results. Not only was there now one top -- and tough -- manager, but his relations with the boss were also close and longstanding. Insiders quipped that Baker was the 900-pound gorilla who could make Bush listen. The Master Handler kept Bush waging a negative campaign depicting Dukakis as a card-carrying liberal. Regular grace notes, such as his talk of making America a kinder, gentler nation, kept Bush from coming across as a bully. Each morning at his 7:30 a.m. staff meeting, Baker and top aides settled on a single ''line of the day,'' backed by events and designed to snatch the media spotlight. Often the artifice was obvious, but it was effective: Bush brandished his patriotism at a flag factory and bashed Dukakis's environmental record from a boat in polluted Boston Harbor. At the State Department, Baker's political aptitude, managerial muscle, and close ties to the boss are likely to make him the most powerful secretary since Henry Kissinger. His initial goals are likely to include a conventional arms reduction treaty with the Soviets and an agreement with the Japanese to shoulder more financial responsibility for the Third World. Both could result in a substantial reduction of the budget deficit. Realizing them does not look easy -- but in the dog days of August, neither did a Bush landslide. A.R.D.