Okay, I could kiss you. I re-downloaded the theme, uploaded the footer.php, and it’s fixed. I feel really dumb for not trying that before.
Thank you!
I have no plugins activated. I deleted them to be sure (it was just Hello Dolly and Akismet), but that footer stays.
Please ignore! A response was posted immediately after my question, that resolved the issue, here: http://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/topic/how-to-re-enable-comments-after-using-persistent-mode?replies=1
How did you resolve this issue? I deleted the plugin and cannot get my comments to show. I have checked all the code on the site, and it appears to be correct. If this is a database issue, how did you fix it?