President Barack Obama told a group of Democratic fundraisers that they’re “chronicling the slow deterioration of Barack Obama” at a Wednesday event in California.

The luncheon, sponsored by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was hosted by real estate mogul George Marcus at his home in California’s Los Altos Hills. Tickets started at $10,000, with a VIP option available for just $32,400 — the maximum amount an individual can contribute to the DCCC in one year. (RELATED: Major International Crises No Reason To Stop Fundraising)

“I’ve got so many friends,” he began, “so many people who have supported me for so long. As I look back, I realize how many of you have pictures of me with no gray hair. You’re chronicling the slow deterioration of Barack Obama.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was also in attendance, who Obama described as “somebody who combines grace and intelligence and toughness with deep and abiding compassion.”

Noting that Democrats “have a congenital defect, and that is we do not vote during midterm elections,” he said he needs “everybody here to have as great a sense of urgency about these midterms as you had about my election in 2008, or my election in 2012. … I need help. And that help comes in the form of having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.”

He was also sure to criticize the Republican Party, saying that “politics doesn’t work in Washington … because we have one party that has no agenda other than making government not work; whose primary function, primary purpose right now, if you distill their ideology, comes down to saying no to any efforts to help ordinary families get ahead.”

“Some of it is ideologically-driven. Some of it is driven by pure political calculation,” he chided, “because what they know is if government is not working, people get cynical; and if people get cynical they do not vote; and if people do not vote that advantages them.”

Follow Tristyn on Twitter.