Roberta McCain: Lead foot

Published November 29, 2007 5:00am ET



On the bus 

Sen. John McCain’s mom, Roberta, is 95 years old. Which means she was but a spring chicken of 91 in 2003 when she was ticketed for making like Jeff Gordon on a cross-country trip.

“It’s so dumb!” she tells People magazine, in the issue that hits stands Friday. “I was driving across the continent and had 300 miles to Los Angeles. I thought, well, I can make it tonight. So I put the gas on. I got a ticket for driving 112 miles per hour, signed my name, and went on my way.”

The magazine interviews three generations of McCain women: Roberta, wife Cindy and daughter Meghan, all of whom are traveling on McCain’s campaign bus.

Cindy says that their son, Jimmy, a Marine stationed in Iraq, is “supposed to be coming home — not in time for Christmas, but soon.”

And we learn that Meghan does her dad’s TV makeup. “I have his exact Casper the Ghost paleness, so I know what looks good,” she says. “I am my father’s personality cloned in a woman’s form.”