68 Valiant dies and runs lumpy, then suddenly runs fine.

Wow, out of the blue on this one. Drove the car 45 miles. Parked it for 20 minutes, drove 100 yards and when I went to restart it suddenly ran like crap. Sounds like it's missing a lot (pulled a couple plug wires while running and made no difference in idle) and dies immediately when put into gear.
With throttle it will stay running, but lumpy. I let off the gas and it died.
I limped it to where I'm staying 5 minutes away and tinkered in the driveway for a while.
Adjusting the air/fuel mixture and idle screws do nothing.
Choking the carb makes it run good.
Engine is not hot,
No obvious vacuum leaks. Thats almost what it feels like. Cap, rotor are in decent shape, and the coil and alternator are less than a year old. I remounted the coil yesterday afternoon.
When I started it, I noticed the volt gauge jumps all the way up, then drops to normal as the car runs.

I needed a beer at this point. I'm an hour from my shop on the maiden voyage across the island and I have basic tools with me.

Come back out, open the hood and try to start it again. Idles fine, goes into gear and moves, and acts like nothing ever happened. No problems with voltage. I have a short flashback to my ex.

Any guesses?