EXCLUSIVEIndependent voters would rather have convicted felon Donald Trump babysit their children than Joe Biden after disastrous debate performance
- JL Partners polled 805 independent voters who watched Thursday's debate
- 'Trump claimed the mantle of babysitter-in-chief,' said pollster James Johnson
- READ MORE: The words viewers used to describe Joe Biden's performance
Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance has seen him switch positions with Donald Trump when it comes to basic questions of competence, according to an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com.
It found that more independent voters would prefer convicted felon Trump to babysit their children than the 81-year-old president, who cultivates an image of the twinkle-eyed grandfather.
Need to put up a shelf, plan a road trip or just hang out with someone?
The J.L. Partners poll of 805 independent voters who watched the debate found that Trump was the choice in each case.
It marks a stunning setback for Biden, whose aides hoped would be able to use the debate to remind viewers of the chaos and anxiety of Trump's years in power.
J.L. Partners asked 805 independent voters for their thoughts on the two candidates after Thursday evening's debate. The results suggest Trump is ranked more competent than Biden
Instead, Biden looked every one of his 81 years in a halting, uncertain performance.
Independent voters overwhelmingly saw Trump as the winner, branding him the more presidential and stronger of the two candidates.
And 38 percent said they would want Trump to babysit for them ahead of 29 percent who said they would ask Biden.
More than half said they would prefer to spend the Fourth of July with Trump, about the same percentage who said he would be the better bet to put up a shelf, perhaps worried that Biden would fall off a ladder.
'If you'd have told me at the start of this year that independent voters would prefer Trump to babysit their kids over Biden, I'd have told you you were mad,' said James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners.
'Even during the depths of his unpopularity, Biden has tended to be seen as the more caring and competent of the two leaders.
'Debate night changed that.'
He added that voters were so concerned by Biden's age—eight in 10 of them, according to the poll—that they now doubt his basic competence.
'Competence is not a dry, managerial quality to voters but linked to strength and purpose,' he said.
The candidates are the oldest in history. Trump is only three years younger than Biden
How did listening to Joe Biden in the first presidential debate make you feel?
'Biden failed to show any of those qualities at the debate and, almost by default, Trump claimed the mantle of babysitter-in-chief.'
Biden's campaign had pushed for the early debate—the earliest in history—because they believed that many voters had yet to focus in on the choice they will face in November.
But the decision backfired, triggering a frantic round of soul-searching among Democrats worried they might be letting the election slip away.
Among independents, the group who will decide the outcome in November, the verdict was brutal.
When asked for one word to describe how listening to Biden made them feel, respondents said: Concerned, worried, sad.
