Nobody's brilliance as a campaign operative translates to policy successes. Selling a candidate and selling a policy proposal are two very different animals.

Carl cannon encapsulates it, but John DiIulio, formerly Bush's head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, explained/predicted it way back in 2003:

"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.

*snip*

When policy analysis is just backfill to support a political maneuver, you’ll get a lot of oops."

From Ron Suskind's Esquire article, "Why are these men laughing?"