It’s a marked contrast from four years ago, when party leaders for all intents and purposes froze out Paul completely. While Republicans held their convention in St. Paul in 2008, Paul drew more than 10,000 people to a counter convention across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

“I hope that Ron Paul supporters and delegates saw a Republican National Committee that was fair, open and honest,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told POLITICO. “I think you’re seeing the beginning of a very peaceful conclusion to this and everyone being on the same page to elect Mitt Romney.”

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(Fun fact: Paul was a Ronald Reagan delegate in 1976 — one of just four members of Congress to endorse his primary challenge against incumbent President Gerald Ford.)

So began a delicate dance between the two campaigns’ high commands to ensure both men got what they wanted.

“You saw that I had a chance to rule motions out of order,” he added, “but I didn’t because I would have rather just had everybody get it all out, state your position, take a vote, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The seeds of a Romney-Paul détente were already evident during the GOP primary contests, when both men were loath to attack one another, playing for the end game that is the convention. There was some behind-the-scenes coordination, with both men recognizing that they needed each other: Romney to capture some members of a vibrant constituency in the Republican Party, and Paul to gain influence at the convention and permanently, both for himself and his son Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

In a major win, Rand Paul nabbed a prime-time convention speaking slot on Monday night.

But after Romney sewed up the nomination in April, a string of chaotic state conventions in places like Maine stoked fears that Ron Paul could wreak havoc on their planned coronation. A convention has not actually mattered in the selection of a party’s nominee since 1976 but the quadrennial affairs have become a candidate’s only meaningful opportunity to introduce himself on his own terms to a national audience.