This is probably something that lots of people already know, but this is just a good example of how backlinks, or links to your site actually do make it rank, and in this case has nothing to do with the content of the website. Try a "I'm feeling Lucky" Search for the word "failure" . I found it interesting. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/googlebombing-failure.html
I don't think the search engine is doing any such thing. It is merely reporting on what it has archived.
It's funny how the other side of the political party tried to respond by setting "michaelmoore.com" to be a failure too.