By Faisal Islam, Political Editor
It seems a long way from the agreeable TV debate star, to Rose Garden love-ins and that new politics.
And on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will attempt what seems impossible: to get Britain to agree with him, or at least his party, once more.
He sat down with Sky News to explain how.
First, a tax allowance rise which will mean a £100 tax cut for 29 million people from 2016.
If it sounds suspiciously like Prime Minister David Cameron's tax cut, then Mr Clegg says it's because the Tories "plagiarised" the policy.
"I had to fight tooth and nail against David Cameron and George Osborne, who kept saying to me privately: 'This is your tax cut. If you want this Nick, you are going to have to do this, that or the other'," Mr Clegg said.
"In all the budget negotiations, getting it up to £10,000 and then £10,500 was something I had to press very hard (for)."
The difference: the £1.5bn cost will be funded by capital gains and other tax rises on the wealthy.
Taking millions out of the tax system since 2010 is central to Mr Clegg's pitch.
But I asked him how it was that the tax allowance cut, effectively of £12bn compared to his 2010 VAT tax rise, of, yes £12.5bn.
"I've been very open about the fact ... that we can't pretend and longer that you can balance the books by gouging out more and more money from public spending alone," he said.
On the floor of the Liberal Democrat conference there was a defeat for the leadership on airports policy.
Specifically, maintaining a policy of refusing further growth in runways on England's South East, rather than accepting expansion at London Gatwick.
It was a difficulty rather than a disaster. But it was emblematic of two problems.
The grassroots still retaining greener, more left wing credentials than the leadership, and the shadows of a coalition negotiation.
Would Mr Clegg still have entered coalition knowing that months before the election he'd be stuck at 7% to 8%.
"Yes, 10 times over, 100 times over, 1,000 times over," he said.
"Liberal Democrats are a political party. We're not a think-tank or a discussion group. We want to change this country for the better."
Mr Clegg also called for the Prime Minister to stop dragging his feet over a TV debate.
But Mr Clegg is oddly serene. It has been a serene conference with little of the torpor of Manchester, not the splits and defections that we saw with the Conservatives in Birmingham.
But perhaps the Titanic en route to the iceberg was also rather serene.
The great hope according to Norman Lamb: a major new announcement on mental health.
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