Is there a way to edit the PHP so you can minimize comments as a default with the option to click to show?

This might help too: http://www.themolitor.com/forums/topic/turn-off-comments-in-wordpress

The comment section is included in the PHP, so if you're looking to disable all commenting on all pages but not posts, you can take them out of your templates by going to the theme editor (Appearance>Editor). Find the page.php file and remove the following code:

<div id="commentsection">
<?php comments_template(); ?>
</div>

If you're using the full page template (no sidebar) you'll want to do it there too. Bear in mind that this is a rather blunt solution that worked for my site (http://www.dentondemocrats.org) but this will affect all pages and the theme author may have a cleaner way of doing it.

How do I remove the users ability to comment on all of my static pages?

Under Settings>Discussion, I do have this unchecked: “Allow people to post comments on new articles “

Is there another place where I can disable the commenting function universally?