Momma McCain Joins ‘Straight Talk Express’

ABC News’ Bret Hovell Reports. Seventy-one year old Senator John McCain gets asked a lot about his age: is he too old to be president?

He has a funny story he tells in his answer to that question. It’s about his 95 year old mother, flying to France and being told she was too old to rent a car.

"So she bought one," is the punch line to McCain’s tale, eliciting laughter, and proving that he was born of strong genes.

But proof beyond a reasonable doubt arrived on the trail with the Arizona Republican Wednesday. In the flesh, it was 95-year old Roberta McCain.

"I’m so happy to be here, I think I’m going to cry," she said, speaking before her son at a town hall meeting in Columbia.

Mrs. McCain joined in all of the fun of campaigning – traveling around on the Straight Talk Express with her son, daughter-in-law Cindy, and a horde of reporters; shaking the hands of admiring well-wishers; even eating a chili dog from Jimmy’s Hot Dogs in Columbia: a messy, but enjoyable experience.

"I got chili on me," she said, climbing back on the bus after lunch.

She also met the Fay Trueblood, the oldest resident at Wildwood Downs, a retirement community where John McCain spoke about healthcare. Trueblood is 104.

"I’m almost in your league, but not quite," quipped Mrs. McCain