I think NASA is ready for the change and yes, they needed someone to tell them to 'make it so'.

As for returning to the moon, yes for it to be a Martian testbed, (it was wasn't it?). The moon should have been approached just as the Antartic is at present (days instead of months, of course at first).

It took a decade to go to the moon. Hopefully by 2020 we'll not only know a great deal more about Mars, but how humans can survive the, long or short trip. Which is one of the reasons why I've also been a suporter of the ISS. Astronauts are able to work and live in the ISS for months at a time.

It's a good proposal. Maybe ten years late at least, but most of will take it.