Wysiwyg_formatter did indeed solve the problem, but I had to go into their Issues to get a version that would work on Drupal 7.  I wish they would put the patched version out as a release to make it easier for others. But the FAQ is wrong because the TinyMCE buttons only put in <span> tags, so the check box does nothing.

Thanks,
Jim

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 10:44:26 -0400
From: Shai Gluskin <shai@content2zero.com>
Subject: Re: [support] Tiny MCE and Wysiwyg
To: support@drupal.org
Message-ID: <BANLkTinoEbx7_5NCqiHjELTHmkVMOo2oEQ@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi James,

You need the the wysiwyg_filter
<http://drupal.org/project/wysiwyg_filter>module.

Though the FAQ is confusing or wrong in this regard... the answer was close
by. There was a link highlighted in pink with strike-through, "Tiny MCE and
Filter HTML not allowing font changes." The answer to your is question is
thus at:

http://drupal.org/node/400216#comment-4472864

Looking at the post-times, I see that it is possible that *you* are @tjtj.
Arggh, I wish this list were on g.d.o. Anyway, please write back to this
list if you get your question answered in a different place so people don't
waste their time helping someone who got help elsewhere.

Good luck,

Shai