I use jWYSIWYG for my Front-end Editor<http://scribu.net/wordpress/front-end-editor>plugin because it's very fast to load. However, people are constantly asking me to include the tinyMCE editor, because jWYSIWYG seems too basic, in comparison. I think a plugin that replaces the tinyMCE editor in the admin is your only option. -- http://scribu.net