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The biggest problem with NASA is that it takes longer than an election cycle for anything significant to be done. Each administration comes in and tears up the previous administration's blueprint. I've heard that even John F. Kennedy was having second thoughts about landing on the moon by the end of the 60s. If he hadn't been assassinated and Lyndon Johnson hadn't driven the program forward in the name of "fulfilling Kennedy's dream," we might not have gotten there.
But since then, look at the history... Nixon killed the final phases of the Kennedy/Johnson moon program, Carter revamped Nixon's space shuttle idea, Clinton overhauled Reagan's space station idea, and now Obama has axed Bush II's Constellation program. And when someone else takes over, regardless of whether it's next year or in 2017, that person will probably tear up Obama's plans and come up with something else.
I've been saying for years that the US wouldn't get serious about returning to the moon until there was a Chinese flag planted on it. And when that happens, the American politicians will all scream, "How could this have happened?" and point fingers at the opposing party for letting the US lead slip away.
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