Were that to happen, she would pick up as many as 111 more delegates in those states than Obama.
That would not overcome his lead, but it might narrow the gap enough that she could tell superdelegates the race was close enough to hand her the nomination.
Some in her campaign circle are not sold on the argument.
Given that Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan, a compromise needs to be worked out that would assure the Illinois senator a certain number of delegates, these people said.
Under Clinton's plan, she would pick up 73 elected delegates in Michigan, and 55 would be assigned to "uncommitted." Her campaign has given no hint that it is willing to bend.
Richard Schiffrin, a national finance co-chairman in the Clinton campaign, said a fair compromise might be splitting Michigan's 128 elected delegates between the two candidates.
"I would support a compromise that is within a range of reasonableness," Schiffrin said.
Alan Patricof, also a national finance chairman for Clinton, said that Obama couldn't be the only one to sacrifice when Michigan and Florida delegates were meted out.
"Some accommodation has to be made to reflect what took place and so that both parties can walk away and feel justice prevailed," Patricof said.
William Galston, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution and a former member of Bill Clinton's White House staff, said: "There's only one kind of outcome that really makes sense here. The rules have to be adhered to or else the whole thing turns into a farce. There must be some punishment. The minimum punishment is the reduction of weight of their delegations by 50%."
Garry Shay, a member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee and a Clinton supporter, said it was important to impose a sanction so states wouldn't leapfrog one another in the next presidential campaign. With no penalty, he said, "you'll have absolute, total chaos in 2012."
More bad news for Clinton came down from Democratic National Committee lawyers.
The party circulated a memo this week that said the rules call for Florida and Michigan's voice at the nominating convention be cut at least in half. If the committee were to go along, Clinton's potential gain in Florida, for example, might drop from 38 delegates to 19.
Within Clinton's camp, aides are divided over how to proceed. Some want the fight to go on; others are ready for it to end.
A Clinton media spokesman, Phil Singer, said Thursday that after the final primaries next week, Clinton would remain a candidate, competing in what he called "the superdelegate primary."
But others believe the end will come sooner.
One person with ties to the Clinton campaign said the senator might drop out as soon as Wednesday because it would become fruitless to lobby superdelegates.
"I'm not sure that having a cranky Pelosi and Dean saying, 'Get out, get out,' is an atmosphere conducive to making the argument" to superdelegates, said the person, who was not authorized to speak for the campaign.
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peter.nicholas@latimes.com
janet.hook@latimes.com
