flooding? acting odd

Just bought a Pickup. '96 Dodge Dakota, 4cyl, 5 speed.
It has very low gas efficiency. It idles funny and has stalled out (once).
It has no real power in 5th gear.
At times, I cannot start out in 1st gear as it stales regardless of how carefully I accelerate. I wait 5 min +/- and it seems fine.
I seems to be flooding, but I'm not sure.

Help me!!!

Phil

first thing to check is the fuel pressure; should be around 49 PSI.

like freak sais check fuel psi. i would check vaccum hoses and you can do this with carb cleaner go to all hoses you see and litely on each hose and if it idles high you have a leak there is some people will tell you it will eat the hose up but this is what i do all the time. also did you give it a tune up? another thing it might be your timing you may want to check that also.