These proposed missions to an asteroid and Mars are just misdirection IMO. Obama has no intention of allowing the US to take a space leadership roll at all and these long range ideas are just red herrings for public consumption. If China or others build facilities on the moon, the US will simply cheer them on. We need completely new leadership in the US before anything bold and real is considered again.
China will declare an ADIZ around the Moon, if the United States fails to act.
As much as I think we need to go to mars, a real moon base is the right logical step. If we can do a decade on the moon, we can do mars.