Herman Cain's memoir is on its way to best sellerdom. Credit: Amazon

Not only is Cain climbing in the polls, his memoir is climbing up the Amazon.com list, landing in the top 10 Best Sellers. Today Herman Cain’s memoir, “This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House’” hit book shelves. Kicking off his book tour last night on the “Sean  Hannity Show,” Cain will, in the middle of his campaign for the White House, spend two weeks promoting his book.

The book chronicles the pizza CEO’s rise from rags to riches. It details his early life in the segregated South, meeting his wife, Gloria, and his battle with stage 4  liver and colon cancer. He also gives an in-depth view of his many years in business, moving from the Coca-Cola Co. to Pillsbury to Burger King and then  to Godfather’s Pizza. Cain isn’t shy about portraying what the first 90 days of a Cain administration would look like.

He recounts his first moment on the national stage, confronting President Clinton during a televised town hall about  his proposed health care bill.

Cain on YouTube – 1994.

“While I was not the first person who tried to point out to the president and members of his administration how his proposed plan would affect jobs and the economy, my ‘four minutes of notoriety’ would serve as a lightning rod, and would become, in the words of Newt Gingrich, one of my worthy opponents of the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2012, ‘the turning point of the debate’.”

He also talks about his motivation to run for office and the birth of his granddaughter as the defining moment that led him to run for president.

“My first grandchild! I didn’t think: How do I give her a good start in life? How do I make sure she gets a good education? The first thought that went through my mind was: What do I do to make this a better world and a better nation?”

Other interesting tidbits – his Secret Service name would be “Cornbread.”  Apparently, he can’t enough of the stuff. He also talks about how he measures up against the rest of the GOP field. He’s not particularly worried by his competitors and writes  ”least of all Ron Paul, whose campaign sends one of its ‘Paulites’ everywhere I show up. Clearly, the intent is to agitate, not to educate.”

Most of the questions from Ron Paul supporters are about his position on the Federal Reserve. Cain served as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “I get the same stupid question at almost every of these events. I know it’s a deliberate strategy,” writes Cain. “But I’ve got news for those Paulites: It’s not going to work, because the American people are a lot smarter than they are. That’s what I’m seeing around the country.”

Cain was born in 1945, and he says he was too young to participate in the civil rights movement that would soon rock the South and the nation.

Cain writes, “On a day-to-day basis, because the civil rights movement was a few years in front of me, I was too young to participate when they first started the Freedom Rides  and the sit-ins. So on a day-to-day basis, it didn’t have an impact. I just kept going to school, doing what I was supposed to do, and stayed out of trouble . I didn’t go downtown and try to participate in sit-ins.”

Monday night on “Hannity,” he recounted a moment with his brother at a “colored only”‘ water fountain. “We had not been taught segregation at the age of 6 and 7.  We wondered what the big deal was about. Now, that being said, and growing up in the segregated South, I am not mad at America. I don’t have a grudge against America. Because one of the things that has made this nation great, in its short 235 year history,” Cain told Hannity, “is its ability to change. A lot of other countries don’t have that ability. We ought to be appreciative of the fact that this country has that kind of resilience.”

Cain is the author of several other books on topics of business and public speaking. “This is Herman Cain!” was published by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.