By LORI SANTOS and DAVID A. WIESSLER

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) --In his first encounter with Bill Clinton in the aftermath of victory, Al Gore hugged his boss long and hard, looked straight into the president-elect's eyes, and said: ''Hi, pal. You look good.''

Democrats won a majority of the 12 contested gubernatorial races across the country Tuesday, with the likely prospect of adding two seats to their column for a total of 30.

World leaders reacted with cautious optimism Wednesday to the election of Bill Clinton as the next U.S. president, expressing hope the youthful Arkansas governor would bring a fresh impulse to the White House but worrying about the impact he might have on the world economy and critical foreign policy issues.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) -- Bill Clinton's campaign strategists described their blueprint for victory Wednesday, confidently predicting the dawn of ''a Clinton era'' which will redefine the nation's voting patterns for years to come.

DALLAS, Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) - Campaign aides of Ross Perot, after a night of soul- searching their candidate's unsuccessful bid for the White House, Wednesday proclaimed the effort a ''tremendous victory'' that earned the billionaire nearly 20 percent of the popular vote.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) - As the early election returns were tabulated Tuesday night, the sign in Bill Clinton's Little Rock, Ark., campaign headquarters seemed to say it all: ''It's the economy, stupid.''

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) -- President-elect Bill Clinton will get solid support from a Democratic majority Congress that will have a record number of women and minorities, as well as entrenched veterans eager to see what the nation's first ''baby boomer'' president will ask of them.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) -- In his first day as president-elect, Bill Clinton tried to assure the world that America's basic interests had not changed just because the Democrats had wrested the White House from the Republicans for the first time in 12 years.

In an unprecedented move in U.S. political history, Americans enacted term limits on representatives in Congress and statehouses in all 14 states in which they were proposed, in many cases by overwhelming margins.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 1992 (UPI) - Hours after his devastating defeat for re-election, an emotional President Bush returned to the White House Wednesday afternoon and into the embrace of his most fierce supporters, saying, ''I think we really contributed something to the country.''

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 1992 (UPI) - Congressional Democrats, who have suffered the agonies of a Republican president for a dozen years, cannot wait for President-elect Bill Clinton's inauguration. They are positively giddy at the prospect.