Politicians now use focus groups to formulate, communicate policy.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ President Clinton waits to hear what they have to say about health care before he proposes action. House Speaker Newt Gingrich wants to hear their opinions about the budget.

They are not lawmakers or lobbyists or scholars.

They do not meet in the U.S. Capitol. Or the White House. They sit in plain rooms behind nondescript storefronts in suburban strip shopping malls in places like Baltimore and Seattle. The only observers are people watching from behind a two-way mirror, and clients who pay to read a written summary or watch a videotape.

They are focus groups.

Drawn together for an evening of talk, focus groups are gatherings of 10 or 12 ordinary people like teachers, plumbers and homemakers that help pollsters measure feelings beneath broad poll statistics.

For years, focus groups were used almost entirely by businesses to test market their products and pitches. Now they are increasingly used by politicians to help them sell ideas and themselves like diet cola or laundry detergent.

First, politicians grew dependent on polls to tell them what the public thought. Now, they turn to focus groups to tell them how to bend that public opinion.

The most notable success was the Republican takeover in Congress in 1994. The party's campaign platform, the Contract With America, was written after exhaustive research with focus groups that shaped almost every sentence in the manifesto. Reactions from focus groups also kept one notable …