Gray Power!

An older woman strides confidently through the local headquarters of the American Association for Retired Persons and looks straight at the television camera. "AARP's 27 million members believe that together, we can make a difference," she says. "We'll make sure you know what the candidates say -- and what they don't say -- about issues." Her tone is sweetly reasonable. But just to make sure those video-dazed viewers in Iowa and New Hampshire sit up and listen, she shakes her spectacles at them and adds, "If you think you've seen it all, you ain't seen nothin' yet."

Blunt and a tad belligerent, America's senior citizens are suddenly flexing their biceps in presidential politics. Flush from a Capitol Hill victory that protected Social Security increases from the budget ax, the Gray Lobby has turned its muscle to states where early contests will winnow the field of presidential candidates. Across the country, campaign operatives report that no other group has emerged in this election cycle with such unexpected force. "Any candidate who wants to win in 1988 is not going to mess with the old folks," says Thomas Kiley, an adviser to Michael Dukakis.

Until this election, AARP had not focused on presidential politics. But now the organization is launching an $8 million get-out-the-vote effort, running a $400,000 television ad campaign, sponsoring candidate debates in Iowa that are beamed by satellite to other states, holding workshops for activists and organizing mass mailings that will hit a million households by Election Day. In doing so, it has made the sanctity of Social Security and the expensive dream of Government-sponsored long-term health care top issues on the 1988 agenda.

Candidates, knowing that senior citizens flock to the polls with a vengeance, have responded with a gusher of saccharine rhetoric. "If we can get a man to the moon, we ought to be able to get dentures to people who built our society," went a sample line from Democrat Paul Simon at AARP's Iowa debate. The 1,000 gray-haired activists in attendance applauded noisily. On . the way out, Wally Wakefield, a retired salesman from West Des Moines, couldn't help gloating. "They came because of us," he said. "We're powerful."

Founded in 1958 mainly to provide insurance for retirees, AARP is now the nation's largest special-interest group. "Join the Association that's bigger than most countries," boasted a recent magazine ad. This elderly behemoth, nearly twice the size of the AFL-CIO, continues to grow by about 8,000 new dues payers a day. One out of nine Americans belongs, paying a $5 annual fee. AARP offers drug and travel discounts, runs the nation's largest group-health- insura nce program and a credit union. In addition, its savvy media operation includes Modern Maturity, the nation's third highest circulation magazine; a wire service that provides newspapers with "unbiased reporting" on elderly issues; and a weekly television series.