Question about the DNC nomination...

As was the case with their bizarre distribution of deligates, committed, super, and otherwise, and their apparently arbitrary manner of distributing them across both the primaries and their straw polls/caucuses, the Dems have once again managed to confuse me completely on the issue of their nomination process. Hopefully somebody has seen the answer to this somewhere and can help me out. Am I understanding it correctly that Obama basically is walking into Denver and allowing Hillary to recieve nomination votes without any "safety net" preventing the party from pulling a fast one and ending up nominating Hillary outright? Why did he agree to this or was it something which the party higher ups forced on him?