New York (CNN)Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Friday that the party outsmarted itself in passing a 2012 rule that he said was aimed at blunting his influence on that summer's convention.

The GOP's "Rule 40(b)" requires candidates win the "support of a majority of the delegates from each of eight or more states" in order to have their named placed on the nominating ballot. The raised threshold -- it had previously been a plurality from five states -- helped to prevent Paul's supporters from upstaging or distracting from the presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, on national television.