"I didn't expect it to turn out this way". An excuse some use when they choose to do the wrong thing. Is it good enough? Why?

To decide there must be criteria of how others would expect it to turn out to determine what is reasonable. If it is a question of something like why did hillary keep voting for the war then there is the information of how some other people voted who have been very principled through their career.  Hillary voted for the war saying she didn't know the consequences but at the same time people like Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul voted against and were consistent in that. So those people are either much smarter than hillary and knew it would be bad or hillary is just as smart and knowingly voted for it even though it was bad. I think the second is true and hillary was not tricked in any way to vote for the war many times.