Alatar and
Pallando "failed" only in earlier drafts of the universe. But Tolkien changed that. In the most recent draft (and therefore the most canon draft),
Alatar and
Pallando were not failures. Tolkien said specifically:
"Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion ... and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they failed) and to cause [?dissension and disarray] among the dark East ... They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West."
So no,
Alatar and
Pallando were not a couple of blue idiots as far as Tolkien was concerned, at least not in the most recent history he wrote about them.