A 1977 political thriller by columnist William Safire, Full Disclosure follows President Sven Ericson, who loses his sight after a head wound suffered in an assassination attempt. The next few months are caught up in a heated debate about whether Ericson is capable of still carrying out his presidential duties as the president adjusts to his new situation. Full Disclosure is notable as the first major work of fiction to discuss the 25th Amendment and follow a president being threatened by it.
- 25th Amendment: The crux of the book is debating what makes a president, even a disabled one, "unable" under the legal definition of the amendment. It's also pointed out that even if the cabinet votes to enact the amendment then the president may fight it in Congress.
- Amicable Exes: President Ericson and his lover Buffie fall out when his blindness brings long-term issues between them to a head, and she's quick to sell vital information about him to Bannerman and sleep with another member of his staff. However, by the end of the book, they've made peace, partially because Ericson appreciates that she didn’t tell Bannerman everything he could have used against Ericson.
- Amoral Attorney: Downplayed with White House Counsel Mark Hennessy and Attorney General Emmett Duparquet.
- Hennessy (a former divorce lawyer) is sleazy and ambitious in guarding Ericson’s interests (including bribing Ericsson’s old campaign manager to keep his mouth shut) but is portrayed as not quite deserving of the criminal charges that are eventually filed against him.
- Duparquet is a law-abiding man determined to keep Bannerman from misinterpreting the constitution. He can also be ambitious, wrathful, and arrogant, and is accused of caring more about the appearance of integrity than actual integrity.
- Bait-and-Switch: The second time the cabinet votes on whether to enact the 25th amendment, Ericson's supporters suspect trickery when The Secretary of the Treasury who replaced the fired Bannerman abruptly doesn’t attend and his Wild Card deputy secretary attends in his place. It turns out the secretary really is just sick and the deputy secretary votes for Ericson like his boss would have.
- Behind Every Great Man: Mrs. Bannerman only has one scene in the book, but is a calculating political thinker who is deeply supportive of her more impetuous husband and jokingly compares herself to Lady Macbeth.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Secret Service agent Harry Bok is an amiable man who has remained on the bodyguard detail for 20 years due to having a friendly and reassuring demeanor that presidents enjoy. Harry desires a transfer to the counterfeiting detail and considers himself an unskilled fighter. During the assassination attempt, Harry is single-handedly responsible for killing most of the assassins and then is paralyzed while protecting Ericson from a grenade.
- Secretary of Human Resources Angelo Frigipani spends most of the book as a humble and pleasant supporter of the president, albeit in a Slave to PR fashion. Then, in the final act, he votes to invoke the 25th amendment, but only because he knows that Speaker of the House Frenlingheusen has the votes to stop impeachment once it gets to Congress. He then helps mastermind the plan to get Ericson and Nichols to both resign while tricking Bannerman into thinking that Frenlingheusen will make him the new Vice President, when in fact, Frigipani is the first choice to become the new VP, something which Frigipani might have even been gambling on the whole time.
- The Chains of Commanding: Most of the politicians feel the stress of their high offices.
- Secretary of State Curtice is stuck dealing with the public scrutiny of being the first African-American Secretary of State and having to deal with the Russians when they are reluctant to let American doctors treat Ericson and Harry.
- Secretary of Defense Preston Reed is plagued by fear and concern about a war on his watch. He bears Ericson no ill will but supports invoking the 25th amendment due to fear that a blind president will embolden their enemies into attacking America. Upon being told Ericson will take the vote to Congress if the cabinet invokes the 25th amendment (which will make America seem even more unstable to the world), Reed changes his vote and resigns in disgust.
- Failed Future Forecast: The novel takes place during the administration of the 41st president of the United States. Israel and the Arabs are allies, China and Japan have become one country, America and the Soviets are allies, and most of the U.S. government cabinet positions have been combined to form consolidated departments (for a total of five secretaries, and the attorney general).
- Family of Choice: Ericsson comes to refer to his secretary Melinda, psychologist Hank Nelson, and former bodyguard Harry as his "family," and shows them absolute trust.
- Feed the Mole: When Ericson’s disgruntled mistress and personal photographer Buffie becomes a source for Bannerman, she is quickly found out and fed information meant to make Bannerman distrust his allies and fear for his job, although this doesn't deter him.
- Government Procedural: The book follows President Sven Ericson and both his allies and enemies in the White House as he tries to keep the 25th Amendment from being used against him after losing his vision.
- Gray-and-Gray Morality: Ericson and his supporters make many good points about why he should remain president while Secretary of the Treasury Bannerman and his supporters make many good points about why he should be replaced. There are purely sympathetic people on both sides, and people on both sides with personality flaws or selfish intentions. Even Bannerman, the main antagonist (who gets some contemptible Kick the Dog and Ambition Is Evil moments) has a great deal of personal courage and seems to sincerely believe Ericsson is unfit to be president.
- High Turnover Rate: Three characters hold the position of White House Chief of Staff over about two months. The first, venerable statesman Lucas Cartwright, is promoted to a cabinet position and replaced by White House Counsel Mark Hennessy. Hennessy is forced to resign due to bribing a man to keep quiet about the first time Ericson was blind. Press Secretary Smith becomes the new chief of staff, although it remains possible that incoming President Frenlingheusen will replace Smith with someone he’s more familiar with.
- It's All My Fault: Herb Ableman, Ericsson’s personal physician, comes to blame himself for Ericsson’s blindness due to not telling his surgical team about a previous (temporary) episode of blindness Ericsson suffered after a concussion during his campaign, which affected how they treated Ericson. Ableman is eventually Driven to Suicide as a result.
- Mistaken Confession: Ericsson and his administration mistake a newspaper columnists inquiries about whether they lied about the Soviet Premier making a Heroic Sacrifice to save the presidents life (which was done to ward off anger towards the Soviet Union after the assassination attempt) with the reporter making inquiries about Ericson’s previous blindness (which he didn’t disclose to the voters). They have a press conference admitting how Ericson misled the voters about his health and apologizing. The next day the reporter proceeds to expose the truth about the Premier's death, hitting them with two scandals.
- Promotion, Not Punishment: Justified Trope. Ericson gives Natural Resources Secretary Mike Fong a prestigious federal judgeship after efforts to impeach him (which where began by Fong) fail. But while this is partially out of respect for Fong's good intentions, Ericson is primarily motivated by needing an example to prove to President Frenlingheusen that he isn't biased against everyone who tries to force him out of the White House, so that Frenlingheusen will take his warnings about Bannerman's bad character seriously.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: At the end of the novel, Ericson half-jokingly suggests that Frenlingheusen should make Nichols ambassador to Lichtenstein, "unless you have friends in Lichtenstein."
- Seduction-Proof Marriage: Bannerman passes up an opportunity to cheat on his wife of thirty-three years with Buffie, albeit in a haughty manner.
- The Starscream: Melanie, the Deputy Press Secretary, is a variant, as she likes and is loyal to her direct boss, James Smith, but feeds stories to the press to humiliate the man above both of them, White House Chief of Staff Lucas Cartwright, and build up Smith's profile in the hopes that Lucas will quit or get fired, Smith will replace him, and Melanie will get Smith's job. Her plan quickly fails and is called out for its transparency, leaving Melanie abashed and repentant. Although Smith ends up becoming Chief of Staff anyway under other circumstances and Melanie does get to replace him as Press Secretary.
- Switching P.O.V.: Every 4-10 pages, the story switches to a different character's third-person POV. No character has more than 6 POV scenes, and Ericson doesn't get one of his own until the last 100 pages.
- Unexpected Successor: The book ends with Ericson and Nichols resigning. This makes Speaker of the House Morton Frenlinghuesen the new president. Frenlingheusen is a decent man and capable leader who refuses to use Ericson's blindness against him, but he also appears only a handful of times over the previous six hundred pages, and is a member of the opposing Republican Party.
- Vice President Who?: The first time Vice-President Arnold Nichols is mentioned, it’s to show terror at the idea of him succeeding Ericson. Besides Nichols himself, every single character in the book considers him to be a stupid, cowardly political hack who will serve as a Puppet King for Bannerman if he becomes president.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Soviet foreign minister Nikolayev assassinates his head of state and is regretfully willing to kill Ericson and several others as collateral damage, but does so out of a desire to preserve the new alliance between America and Russia rather than destroy it, and to keep Kolkov from taking steps that will plunge the world into another war.
- Will Not Tell a Lie: Press Secretary James Smith (a former reporter) is proud of his personal integrity and won't lie to the White House press pool, while showing visual discomfort when Ericson does.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Attempted by Nichols, who is careful not to oppose Ericson himself, but is pleased to see Bannerman doing it instead.
