PHILADELPHIA -- Can't afford to fork over big bucks to your favorite candidate? No ticket to a glittering VIP schmooze fest during the Republican National Convention?

No matter. Philadelphia's host committee can virtually get you within spitting distance of the people and paraphernalia of the presidential campaign, virtually being the operative word.

A 250,000-sq-foot indoor theme park called "PoliticalFest" opened this week in downtown Philadelphia to give ordinary citizens a taste of presidential politics other than the convention fare available on television, radio and the Internet.

Proceedings at the Republican convention, which will nominate Texas Gov. George Bush for president next week, are physically cut off from the public by a cordon of high-level security. The four-day convention opens July 31.

Billed as a "world's fair of politics," PoliticalFest aims to give visitors willing to pay $10 for admission a blizzard of artifacts from past campaigns, relics from eight presidential libraries and a number of "virtual" presidential experiences.

Corporate America, which critics say dominates the real world of U.S. politics, plays prominently in the virtual world, too.

"I like the desk but it makes me feel small," said local businessman Gregory Martin from behind the president's desk in a replica Oval Office used in the TimeWarner Inc. movies "Dave" and "Contact."

LONG LINES FOR PRESIDENTIAL BATHROOM

The longest lines seem to form outside the Air Force One exhibit, a cutaway fuselage of a Boeing 707 like the one that carried President Richard Nixon to China. The interior features cockpit and forward cabin, complete with presidential washroom.

"Yes, it's a presidential bathroom and, no, it's nothing special," a young mother said while steering her toddler daughter away from the toilet.

A few yards away, families can get their pictures taken exiting a mockup of Air Force One's frontdoor thanks to Hewlett Packard Corp., which is using the free exhibit to demonstrate a new digital camera system that retails for several hundred dollars.

Kids also get to throw their hat in the ring by flinging polystyrene boaters at wooden pegs fashioned to look like little Washington Monuments.

The exhibits run from the sublime -- antique U.S. flags made before the banner became standardized in 1912, with five- and eight-point stars, some in concentric circles, others in swirling clouds -- to the ridiculous: a life-size Abraham Lincoln mannequin with moving gestures not unlike those of the neighbors' mechanical front yard Santa.

There is also an educational dimension from a company that sells Web sites where school children can post their essays and artwork.

Virtualology.com, a Carnegie, Pa.-based company that offers Web sites based on 7,000 famous names from history, provided replicas of historic documents including the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

"Instead of concentrating on getting their initials on the top of a list of videogame champs, they can get a school essay on the Web through us," explained Virtualology Chief Executive Stan Klos, whose Web sites includes www.Benjamin-Franklin.Net and www.PresidentWashington.Org.