Independent voters would rather have convicted felon Donald Trump babysit their children than Joe Biden after disastrous debate performance

Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance has seen him switch positions with Donald Trump on fundamental questions of competence, an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com has found.

It showed that more independent voters would prefer convicted felon Trump to look after their children than the 81-year-old president, who cherishes an image of the sparkling-eyed grandfather.

Need to set up a shelf, plan a road trip, or just hang out with someone?

A JL Partners poll among 805 independent voters who followed the debate showed that Trump was the choice in all cases.

It marks a stunning setback for Biden, whose aides had hoped to use the debate to remind viewers of the chaos and fear of Trump’s years in power.

Instead, Biden looked all of his 81 years in a stuttering, uncertain performance.

Independent voters overwhelmingly saw Trump as the winner, calling him the more presidential and stronger of the two candidates.

And 38 percent said they want Trump to pay attention to them, while 29 percent said they would ask Biden for advice.

More than half said they would prefer to spend the Fourth of July with Trump, while about the same percentage said he would be better off hanging a shelf, possibly out of fear that Biden would fall off a ladder.

“If you had told me earlier this year that independent voters would rather have Trump babysit their kids than Biden, I would have told you you were angry,” said James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners.

‘Even during the depths of his unpopularity, Biden was often seen as the more caring and competent of the two leaders.

‘The debate evening changed that.’

He added that voters were so concerned about Biden’s age — eight in 10 of them, according to the poll — that they now doubt his basic competence.

“For voters, competence is not a dry, administrative quality, 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 you feel listening to Joe Biden during the first presidential debate?

“Biden showed none of these qualities during the debate and Trump claimed the mantle of nanny-in-chief almost by default.”

Biden’s campaign had pushed for an early debate — the earliest in history — because it believed many voters were not yet focused on the choice they would face in November.

But the decision backfired and led to a panicky round of self-reflection among Democrats. They feared they would let the election slip.

Among the independents, the group that will determine the outcome in November, the verdict was brutal.

When respondents were asked to describe in one word how they felt while listening to Biden, they answered: worried, concerned, sad.