Elizabeth Warren: Almost an endorsement of Hillary Clinton 2016

Elizabeth Warren says she isn't running for president in 2016. But Elizabeth Warren hasn't quite endorsed Hillary Clinton either.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren tiptoed up to the edge of endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

But didn't quite do it.

"You know, all of the women - Democratic women, I should say, of the Senate - urged Hillary Clinton to run, and I hope she does," Senator Warren responded to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday when asked if Clinton was her candidate in 2016.

When Stephanopoulos pushed a second time, asking if Warren would endorse a Clinton 2016 run, Warren responded, "Hillary is terrific."

Close, but not an endorsement yet. Warren may be banking some of her political capital as her own value as a candidate appears to be rising.

Warren topped Hillary Clinton in a poll early this month when Americans were asked about possible 2016 candidates. The according to a Quinnipiac University "National Thermometer" released on April 3, voters had cooled to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, while warming to Warren:

Number one today is U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, at 48.6 degrees, but 46 percent of American voters don't know enough about her to form an opinion.

 Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is second with 47.8 degrees and only 1 percent don't know enough about her. This is a little cooler than her 48.5 degrees in January, but she jumps from seventh place to second place because several Republican leaders have cooled off.

While hedging on Hillary Clinton, Warren has been explicit about her own 2016 presidential ambitions, saying repeatedly in recent weeks: "I'm not running for president."

Speculation about Warren's presidential aspirations has grown as she promotes a new book, "A Fighting Chance."

In the past, Warren has criticized Bill and Hillary Clinton for backing a bankruptcy bill which Warren criticized as biased toward corporations, not middle Americans. But in her new book, Warren casts Hillary Clinton in a softer light. She recounts a meeting with Clinton in which Warren says Hillary told her that she would work against "that awful bill."

But as The New Republic pointed out, freshman Sen. Clinton actually voted for the bankruptcy bill. Warren's new book makes no mention of that vote.

Stephanopoulos also asked Warren Sunday about her own switch from Republican to Democrat in the 1990s.

"I was originally an independent. I was with the GOP for a while because I really thought that it was a party that was principled in its conservative approach to economics and to markets and I feel like the GOP party just left that," Warren said.