WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Taking the stage at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting, Sen. Barack Obama pointed to the bank of cameras, photographers and pundits in the back of the banquet hall and said that he sometimes feels like a contestant on the reality shows "American Idol" and "Survivor."

"You're trying to figure out, are you going to go to Hollywood or are you going to be voted off the island?" Obama told the crowd of fired up Democrats.

But Obama, whose rock-star status helped draw him into the presidential race, said treating politics like a game causes a "cynicism" that prohibits its true mission.

"It's the cynicism that's born from decades of disappointment, amplified by talk radio and the 24-hour news cycle, reinforced by the relentless pounding of negative ads that have become the staple of modern politics," Obama said. The remarks harkened back to themes of his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, in which he sharply criticized political pundits who "like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States."

But Obama's speech was not entirely above political punch lines that roused the Democratic crowd. He called the Iraq war "a tragic mistake," and reminding the audience he was against the war before many of his presidential opponents.

"I was opposed to this invasion -- publicly, frequently -- before it began," Obama said to a standing ovation.

In March 2003, Obama was a senator in the Illinois State Legislature, not in the U.S. Senate when lawmakers authorized the president to invade Iraq. But even then, he was a vocal critic.

His chief obstacles for the Democratic presidential nomination -- Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina -- both voted for the authorization.